Method and Apparatus for Adjusting a User Interface to Reduce Obscuration

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented method comprising, at an electronic device having a display and means for receiving user input, said method comprises: displaying on the display, while maintaining at least a portion of the graphical user interface on the display, a menu containing one or more functions selectable by the user; and further comprising, altering at least a portion of the graphical user interface on the display so as to reduce the obscuration of the graphical user interface by the menu.

FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY

This present disclosure relates to electronic devices and, moreparticularly, to user interfaces used within those devices for accessingand performing quick actions on items of content on the electronicdevices.

BACKGROUND

Electronic devices are in many cases provided with one or more displaysfor providing visual information to users of the devices. The electronicdevices can be provided with user interfaces for display on the displayof the device for facilitating user interaction with, and operation of,the device via one or more user inputs. The user interfaces comprisevisual elements that can be arranged in various manners on the screenand can represent, for example, executable software programs, menu itemsindicating selectable functionality or operations available to the userwithin programs, a state of some aspect of program or data or otherfunction of the device, etc. User inputs such as trackpads, trackballs,mice, cursors, touch screens and multitouch screens, can providepointer-type controls usable to adjust the position of a pointer inmultiple dimensions to allow interaction with the user interface by, forexample, enabling navigation through menu systems, options, filesystems, program shortcuts etc, and enabling selection and manipulationof visual elements and the items they represent.

There is a need for user interfaces that are simple enough to beintuitive to new users, while still allowing a user to perform complexactions quickly. Furthermore, with a finite amount of screen real estateavailable on displays for electronic devices, there is a need for userinterfaces that can perform their function while minimising the amountof screen space used that could otherwise be utilised for displayingcontent.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Examples of the present proposed approach will now be described indetail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device inaccordance with example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a front view of a phone in accordance with example embodimentsof the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a front view of a tablet computer is accordance with exampleembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates an electronic device in accordance with an embodimentshowing the operation of a user interface for initiating a sidebar;

FIG. 5 illustrates an electronic device in accordance with an embodimentshowing the use of a multitouch gesture for interacting with a sidebar;

FIG. 6 illustrates an electronic device in accordance with an embodimentshowing the use of a hold and drag gesture for interacting with asidebar;

FIG. 7 illustrates an electronic device in accordance with an embodimentshowing a number of user inputs for extracting a sidebar;

FIG. 8 illustrates an electronic device in accordance with an embodimentshowing the operation of a user interface including the introduction ofan ‘undo’ option after a user has selected a ‘delete’ operation;

FIG. 9 illustrates an electronic device in accordance with an embodimentshowing the initiation of separate content item menus related todifferent content types;

FIG. 10 illustrates an electronic device in accordance with anembodiment showing a method of selecting multiple content items in auser interface;

FIG. 11 illustrates an electronic device in accordance with anembodiment showing a multiple select toolbar within a user interface;and

FIG. 12 illustrates an electronic device in accordance with anembodiment showing the extension of a sidebar and the resulting impacton the displayed content.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In one embodiment, the present disclosure describes acomputer-implemented method, at an electronic device having a displayand means for receiving user input, said method comprising, displayingon the display, while maintaining at least a portion of the graphicaluser interface on the display, a menu containing one or more functionsselectable by the user; and further comprising, altering at least aportion of the graphical user interface on the display so as to reducethe obscuration of the graphical user interface by the menu.

One advantage of providing a mechanism for reducing the obscuration ofitems by the menu may be to allow for allow a full-functioned userinterface to be provided that minimises the amount of screen real estateused and aims to minimise how much the actual content, especiallycontent of current interest to the user, is obscured by its presence

In some example embodiments, the altering of the graphical userinterface on the display is to reduce the obscuration of one or moreselected items by the menu.

In some example embodiments, altering the graphical user interfaceincludes altering the position of at least one of the one or moreselected items.

In some example embodiments, altering the graphical user interfacecomprises at least one of resizing and shifting the graphical userinterface.

In some example embodiments, the altering of the graphical userinterface results in no obscuration of the graphical user interface bythe menu.

In some example embodiments, the menu is displayed in an enlarged statethe appearance of the graphical user interface of the application isaltered such that at least part of the or each selected item is visiblein an area unobscured by the menu.

In some example embodiments, when a selected item is larger than theremaining visible area of the graphical user interface, the selecteditem is aligned to the side of the remaining visible area opposite themenu.

In some example embodiments, when a selected item is smaller than theremaining visible area of the graphical user interface, the selecteditems are aligned to the centre in the remaining visible area.

In some example embodiments, when a selected item is aligned near anedge of the graphical user interface adjacent the menu and is smallerthan the remaining visible area of the graphical user interface, thealignment is retained.

In some example embodiments, the altering of the graphical userinterface includes altering the size of the graphical user interface onthe display to reduce the obscuration of the graphical user interface bythe menu.

In some example embodiments, the method further comprises resizing thegraphical user interface on the display so that the graphical userinterface is not obscured at all by the menu.

In some example embodiments, the method further comprises altering thegraphical user interface when the menu is in an enlarged state.

In some example embodiments, the method further comprises altering thegraphical user interface so that no selected items are obscured by themenu.

In some example embodiments, the method further comprises, in responseto receipt of a user input indicating a menu expansion operation,causing the menu to be displayed in an enlarged state having anincreased width.

In some example embodiments, when the menu is displayed in said enlargedstate, a description of the each function is displayed.

In another embodiment, the present disclosure describes a portableelectronic device for providing users of the device with access tocontent. The electronic device comprises a display, a means forreceiving user input, one or more processors, and memory. The memorycomprises instructions which, when executed by one or more of theprocessors, cause the electronic device, in response to receipt of auser input representing a non-modal shortcut menu-summoning operationperformed in relation to one or more selectable content itemsrepresented in a graphical user interface (GUI) of an applicationdisplayed on the display, to: display on the display a sidebar, injuxtaposition with the graphical user interface of said application, thesidebar representing a shortcut menu and containing one or more iconsrepresenting operational shortcuts selectable by the user to causerespective operations to be performed in relation to the one or morecontent items; and permit the user to continue to interact with at leastpart of the graphical user interface of said application wherein whilethe sidebar is displayed on the display.

By displaying a sidebar in juxtaposition with the graphical userinterface of the application, the presence of the sidebar does notentirely obscure the view of the underlying content to the user andtherefore allows the user to still view underlying content while beingprovided with information regarding what actions are available to theselected content. Furthermore, as the user is permitted to interact withat least part of the underlying graphical user interface while thesidebar is displayed, this ensures that the presence of a sidebar has aminimum negative affect, and is minimally intrusive, regarding thefunctioning of the underlying application, while still offering its ownfunctions to the user. The sidebar may be in the form of a menu that isdisplayed on the display adjacent an edge of the display.

In another embodiment, the present disclosure describes an electronicdevice for providing users of the device with access to content. Theelectronic device comprises a touch-sensitive display screen forreceiving user input, one or more processors, and memory. The memorycomprises instructions which when executed by one or more of theprocessors cause the electronic device to: display on the displayscreen, in juxtaposition with the graphical user interface of anapplication, a sidebar representing a shortcut menu. The sidebarcontaining one or more icons representing operational shortcutsselectable by the user to cause respective operations to be performed inrelation to the one or more content items. The memory further comprisesinstructions that, in response to detection of a press on an operationalshortcut icon, cause the device to display an enlarged operationalshortcut icon projecting from the sidebar representing the respectiveoperation in place of the pressed operational shortcut icon.

By displaying an enlarged operational shortcut icon projecting from thesidebar to represent the operation in place of the pressed operationalshortcut icon, a user is able to gain more information about theoperational shortcut icon they have pressed. The operational shortcuticons are originally a smaller size so as to minimise the visualinterruption of the underlying user interface, but the user may chooseto individually, temporarily enlarge the icons to receive informationabout their intended function.

In yet another embodiment, the present disclosure describes anelectronic device for providing users of the device with access tocontent. The electronic device comprises means for receiving user input,a display, one or more processors, and memory. The memory comprisesinstructions which when executed by one or more of the processors causethe electronic device to: cause the device, in response to receivinguser input indicative of a delete operation in relation to a selectedcontent item, to display a graphical user interface undo delete widgetusable by a user of said device to undo a deletion of said content item.

Providing a user with an undo button after performing a deletionoperation allows the user to reverse a deletion they carried out if thatdeletion was performed unintentionally or if the user later changedtheir mind. By performing the deletion operation and then presenting anundo option provides advantages over displaying an obtrusive prompt,asking for confirmation to delete before carrying out the deletionfunction. The embodiment described allows for faster performance offunctions like delete, while still giving the user the ability toreverse or prevent any lasting, unwanted effects.

In yet another embodiment, the present disclosure describes anelectronic device for providing users of the device with access tocontent. The electronic device comprises means for receiving user input,a display, one or more processors, and memory. The memory comprisesinstructions which when executed by one or more of the processors causethe electronic device to: display on the display, in juxtaposition withthe graphical user interface of an application, a sidebar representing ashortcut menu, the sidebar containing one or more icons representingoperational shortcuts selectable by the user to cause respectiveoperations to be performed in relation to one or more selected contentitems. The memory further comprises instructions such that, where aselected content item is associated with two or more types of content,said sidebar is displayed at any one time in one of a number of contexttypes each corresponding to a respective one of said types of contentassociated with said content item and in each of which the sidebarcontains only operational shortcut icons that represent operationscapable of being performed by the device on the respective type ofcontent, wherein the displayed context type of the sidebar is configuredto be changed in response to receipt of a user input indicative of asidebar context-change operation.

As content may comprise more than one content type, the above embodimentallows a user to perform actions not just related to the primary contenttype of the content item, but any other content types associated withthat content item as well. By providing the user with actions associatedwith content types other than the primary content type, the user mayperform actions that may otherwise not have been possible within theapplication. Furthermore, by separating the actions by context allowsfor a more efficient use of screen real estate and less visual confusionto the end user.

In yet another embodiment, the present disclosure describes anelectronic device for providing users of the device with access tocontent. The electronic device comprises a touch-sensitive displayscreen for receiving user input, one or more processors, and memory. Thememory comprises instructions which when executed by one or more of theprocessors cause the electronic device, when a graphical user interfaceof an application displays a list of content items and the devicereceives user input in the form of a long press on a first content item,to display in relation to the selected first content item a graphicaluser interface widget representing a selection handle, the selectionhandle widget being draggable by a user to select one or more additionalcontent items adjacent the first content item in the list.

The above embodiment provides the user of a touch sensitive device amechanism for selecting multiple content items on a user interface. Thedraggable selection handle widget provides an intuitive way of extendingmultiple selections.

In yet another embodiment, the present disclosure describes anelectronic device for providing users of the device with access tocontent. The electronic device comprises means for receiving user input,a display, one or more processors, and memory. The memory comprisesinstructions which when executed by one or more of the processors causethe electronic device to: display on the display, in juxtaposition withthe graphical user interface of an application, a sidebar representing ashortcut menu. The sidebar contains one or more icons representingoperational shortcuts selectable by the user to cause respectiveoperations to be performed in relation to one or more selected contentitems. The memory further comprises instructions to: adjust thepositioning of at least one of the one or more selected content items soas to reduce the obscuration of the items by the sidebar.

By providing a mechanism for reducing the obscuration of content itemsby the sidebar allows for allow a full-functioned user interface to beprovided that minimises the amount of screen real estate used and aimsto minimise how much the actual content, especially content of currentinterest to the user, is obscured by its presence.

In some example embodiments, the memory may further compriseinstructions which when executed by one or more of the processors causethe electronic device, in response to receipt of a user inputrepresenting a modal shortcut menu-summoning operation performed inrelation to one or more selectable content items represented in agraphical user interface of an application displayed on the display, to:display said sidebar on said display, and cease displaying said sidebarin response to receipt of a user input representing a shortcutmenu-dismissing operation, such that the user is thereafter able tocontinue to interact with the graphical user interface of saidapplication. This example embodiment provides the user with the optionof a modal user interface element which can provide greater control overthe actions that can be performed and can require less complex userinput from the user. Furthermore, mechanisms are provided for dismissingthe sidebar when the user no longer wishes to access it, allowing theuser to free up screen space when they desire.

In some example embodiments, the means for receiving user inputcomprises a touch-sensitive element provided in relation to said displayto provide a touch-sensitive display. By making the means for receivinguser input a touch-sensitive element, the user is able to perform easy,intuitive actions to interact with content, such as gestures liketapping, pressing, dragging and multi-touching.

In some example embodiments, the user input representing a modalshortcut menu-activating summoning gesture operation is a static longpress gesture on the content item for a period exceeding a long pressthreshold time value. The long press threshold time value can also bevaried dependent on monitored frequency of use of said gesture. Varyingthis threshold time, based on the frequency that the user performsgestures, results in a user interface that adapts to the behaviour ofthe user, where when it is apparent that a user is repeating the sameaction, the user interface reduces the time required to perform theaction again, thus allowing the user to perform repeated actions faster.Such an action could be related to initiating the sidebar or it could berelated to performing an action on the content items themselves.

In some example embodiments, the memory further comprises instructionssuch that, if the user releases the static long press gesture withoutbeforehand dragging on the touch-sensitive display, the sidebar ispinned to an edge of a useable area of the display such that itcontinues to be displayed after the static long press gesture isreleased. By providing the ability to ‘pin’ the sidebar to an edge of auseable area, the user is able to view the sidebar without performingany further continuous user input (such as continuing the long press),as the sidebar remains pinned to the display. This would be advantageousparticularly to the user who is not yet familiar with the availableshortcuts on the sidebar or who wishes to perform user input actions.

In some example embodiments, where a user has not yet released saidstatic long press gesture, the user input representing a shortcutmenu-dismissing operation is a drag continuing from said static longpress and a subsequent release of said drag on an area of thetouch-sensitive display screen off the sidebar. This embodiment providesthe user with a means for dismissing the sidebar with a minimum amountof effort. This would be particularly useful in the instance where theuser no longer wishes for a sidebar to be displayed or hasunintentionally performed a long press and requires a way of dismissingthe sidebar to increase screen space available to the underlyingapplication.

In some example embodiments, where a user has already released thestatic long press gesture without beforehand dragging on thetouch-sensitive display, said user input representing a shortcutmenu-dismissing operation is a tap on an area of the touch-sensitivedisplay screen off the sidebar. Once the sidebar has already been pinnedby releasing from the long press, the user may require a means fordismissing the sidebar, even though it is in a pinned state. One way ofproviding a user with this functionality is to provide an area of thedisplay for the user to tap on to cause the pinned sidebar to bedismissed.

In some example embodiments, the user input representing a non-modalshortcut menu-summoning operation is one or more of: a static shortpress gesture on a content item for a period exceeding a short pressthreshold time value followed by a drag in the direction of the locationof the shortcut menu; and a static short press gesture item for a periodexceeding a short press threshold time value on a content item followedby a concurrent touch on the display where the shortcut menu willappear. This embodiment provides a means for summoning the sidebar morequickly. Rather than requiring a long press, only a short press followedby a drag in the direction of the location of the sidebar is required tocause the sidebar to be summoned. Another fast method is provided to theuser in this embodiment, as on performing a short press, the user canperform a concurrent touch on the display where the shortcut menu willappear even before the menu appears and, furthermore, without the needto release the short press.

In some example embodiments, the memory further comprising instructionsto cease displaying the sidebar if said touch continued from said staticshort press gesture is released. This embodiment provides the user witha means for dismissing the sidebar with a minimum amount of effort(simply releasing from the short press before it becomes a long press).This would be particularly useful in the instance where a user where theuser no longer wishes for a sidebar to be displayed or the user hasunintentionally performed a short press, and wishes to free up availablescreen space for the underlying application.

In some example embodiments, the act of ceasing to display the sidebaris only carried out if no user input representing an interaction withsaid sidebar is received. In some instances, a user may still intend toperform actions on the sidebar, even if they have released the shortpress, therefore this embodiment provides for users who have releasedfrom the short press, but have already begun to act with the sidebar.

In some example embodiments, the memory further comprising instructionsto cease displaying the sidebar as a result of a user selecting anoperational shortcut icon in the sidebar. In this embodiment, when auser selects an operational shortcut icon, the action associated withthe shortcut icon is therefore performed. Once the action has beenperformed the sidebar may no longer be required and so, in thisembodiment, the sidebar is automatically dismissed as a result of theuser selecting the operation shortcut icon. This ensures that screenspace is not wasted displaying a sidebar when it is no longer required.

In some example embodiments, the user input representing a non-modalshortcut menu-summoning operation performed in relation to the one ormore content items displayed in the graphical user interface of anapplication also causes a selection of said one or more content items.As a user input representing a non-modal shortcut menu-summoningoperation is preformed in relation to specific content items displayedon the screen, in this embodiment the content items to which the userinput is related is selected so that the user may also perform actionson the content items using the sidebar.

In some example embodiments, the user input representing a modalshortcut menu-summoning operation performed in relation to the one ormore content items displayed in the graphical user interface of anapplication also causes a selection of said one or more content items.As a user input representing a modal shortcut menu-summoning operationis preformed in relation to specific content items displayed on thescreen, in this embodiment the content items to which the user input isrelated is selected, so that the user may also perform actions on thecontent items using the sidebar.

In some example embodiments, the device is a portable electronic device.A number of the advantages of the embodiments provided are particularlyadvantage in portable electronic devices where screen space is morelimited than in larger electronic devices. However, the disadvantagesassociated with the smaller screen space of portable device arecountered by the increased portability of the electronic device.

In some example embodiments, the instructions further cause the device,when the graphical user interface of the application displays a list ofcontent items and the device receives user input in the form of a longpress on a first content item, to display in relation to the selectedfirst content item a graphical user interface widget representing aselection handle, the selection handle widget being draggable by a userto select one or more additional content items adjacent the firstcontent item in the list. By allowing a user to initialise a selectionhandle that can be dragged to select additional content items adjacentto the first content item, the user is provided with an intuitive andfast way of selecting multiple content items.

In some example embodiments, the instructions further cause the device,in response to receiving user input indicative of a multiple-selectoperation, to allow a user to select/unselect plural content itemspresented in the graphical user interface of the application by touchingon said content items. This embodiment provides the user with anintuitive way of altering the selection of multiple content items,whereby the user performs a multiple-select operation and cansubsequently perform simple touches on said content items to add orremove them from the selection.

In some example embodiments, the user input indicative of amultiple-select operation is a touch on a multiple-select operationicon. In this embodiment, the user is provided with an icon indicatingwhere the user should touch to enable the above multiple-selection mode,thereby allowing a more easy way of enabling the mode.

In some example embodiments, the instructions configure the device toattempt to perform the respective operations on the selected one or morecontent items indicated by each operational shortcut icon in response toreceipt of user input representing an operational shortcut-activatingoperation. This embodiment provides a user with a means for performingoperations on content items of their choosing by performing a user inputon the shortcut icon associated with the operation, thereby giving theuser a simple way of performing actions on content of their choosing.

In some example embodiments, the operational shortcut-activating gestureis a release of a touch on said icon. The gesture required in thisembodiment is chosen to be a simple one to perform, allowing the user aneasy way of performing actions on content.

In some example embodiments, the instructions further cause the device,in response to receiving user input indicative of a delete operation inrelation to a selected content item, to display a graphical userinterface undo delete widget usable by a user of said device to undo adeletion of said content item. In this embodiment, once the deletion hasoccurred, an ‘undo’ option is provided to the user to cover thesituation where the deletion was by accident or the user changed theirmind. This undo solution, therefore, allows for a faster completion ofactions, as confirmation is not required, while still allowing for easycorrection if the user carried out the action by mistake or has sincechanged their mind.

In some example embodiments, the undo delete widget continues to bedisplayed until the expiry of a persistence time period the commencesonce the user starts to interact with the user interface of saidapplication. The proposed undo solution does not steal focus and isunobtrusive, as it will automatically disappear when it infers that theuser does not wish to carry out an undo command (as indicated by theuser starting to interact with the user interface of the underlyingapplication).

In some example embodiments, in response to receiving user inputindicative of a delete operation in relation to a selected content itemthe representation of the selected content item in the user interface isaltered to indicate its deletion. By providing an indication that theselected content item has been deleted, the user is informed of thedeletion and can therefore be made aware of the action that has beenperformed without causing the user confusion.

In some example embodiments, in response to receiving user input inrelation to said undo delete widget, said selected content itemthereafter continues to be represented in said graphical user interfaceand said content item is retained. By making a user input in relation tothe undo delete widget, the user can be provided with a graphicalrepresentation of the previously removed or deleted content item again,making it clear to the user that the content item has been retrieved.

In some example embodiments, the user input indicative of a deleteoperation in relation to a selected content item comprises a release ofa touch on a delete shortcut icon provided on said sidebar. Thisembodiment provides the user with an easy to perform action to indicatea desire to delete content on a touch screen interface.

In some example embodiments, after receiving said user input indicativeof a delete operation, said delete shortcut icon is animated totransform into said undo delete widget. By animating the delete shortcuticon to the undo delete widget makes it clear to the user that the undowidget is directly related to the delete icon and therefore, conveys tothe user that interacting with the undo widget is likely to reverse theactions of the previous delete shortcut icon.

In some example embodiments, the undo delete widget is anchored to saidgraphical user interface of said application. Anchoring the undo deletewidget allows the widget to remain visible to the user even if the userstarts scrolling or otherwise modifying the underlying application,therefore continuously providing the user with an opportunity to performthe undo until the widget is no longer displayed to the user.

In some example embodiments, an operational shortcut can be performed inrelation to one or more selected content items by the user performing adrag from said one or more selected content items onto said shortcuticon. Allowing the user to drag content items onto operational shortcuticons to perform actions on the dragged content items provides the usera fast and intuitive way of performing actions.

In some example embodiments, during said drag the graphical userinterface of said application scrolls and/or pans in accordance withsaid drag. As the application is made to continue to scrolling and/orpanning while the user is dragging a content item, it ensures that thecontent items in question are still close to the user's finger, ensuringthe user is aware which content item an action would be performed on,and also allows the user to explore the contents of the underlyingapplication while considering actions to perform on the selected contentitems.

In some example embodiments, there are further instructions that, inresponse to detection of a press on an operational shortcut icon, causethe device to display an enlarged operational shortcut icon projectingfrom the sidebar representing the respective operation in place of thepressed operational shortcut icon. This embodiment provides the userwith a way of enlarging or extracting the sidebar to a larger size fromthe original smaller size. While using small unobtrusive icons is usefulin cases where the meaning of the icons are intuitive or the user isalready familiar with the icons and the actions they perform, in someinstances, however, it may be desirable for the user to be able to see amore detailed version of all the icons, without having to individuallyinteract with each one to do so. Therefore it would be advantageous toprovide the user with an option to enlarge the icons through a simpleuser input.

In some example embodiments, the sidebar is provided as an overlay onthe user interface of said application. By overlaying the sidebar on theuser interface of the application, screen real estate is moreefficiently utilised.

In some example embodiments, at least part of the sidebar is at leastpartially transparent. When the sidebar is made partially transparent,the user may still see the underlying application as well as thesidebar, thereby providing an even more efficient use of screen realestate as information regarding the sidebar and underlying applicationcan be provided to the user in the same region of the screen.

In some example embodiments, the act of displaying the sidebar includesthe sidebar being animated to appear on the display. By animating thesidebar's appearance on the screen, the initiation of the sidebar ismade more noticeable to the user and indicates that a change hasoccurred that the user may react to.

In some example embodiments, the memory further comprises instructionsto: in response to receipt of a user input indicating a sidebarexpansion operation, cause the sidebar to be displayed in an extractedstate having an increased width and containing enlarged operationalshortcut icons in place of respective operational shortcut icons. Itwould be advantageous to provide the user with an option to enlarge theicons through a user input so as to provide the user with moreinformation or functionality than with a sidebar of smaller size.

In some example embodiments, when the sidebar is displayed in anextracted state the appearance of the graphical user interface of theapplication is adjusted such that at least part of the or each contentitem is visible in an area away from the sidebar. While the sidebarprovides information and useful functions to the user, it is desirablefor it to minimise its obstruction of the underlying application andcontent. Therefore, in this embodiment, the content item itself is movedso that at least some of it remains visible should the sidebar move toobstruct the view of the content item.

In some example embodiments, when the selected content items are largerthan the remaining visible area of the graphical user interface, theselected content is aligned to the side of the remaining visible areaopposite the sidebar. This embodiment aims to maximise the visibility ofcontent items that are too large to fit completely in the availablespace of the application that is not obscured by the sidebar.

In some example embodiments, when the selected content items are smallerthan the remaining visible area of the graphical user interface, theselected content is aligned to the centre in the remaining visible area.This embodiment aims to ensure that the selected content item is in themost clearly visible region of the available space of the application,by placing it in the middle of the area not obscured by the sidebar.

In some example embodiments, when the selected content items are alignednear an edge of the graphical user interface adjacent the sidebar, thealignment is retained. This embodiment aims to maximise visibility ofthe content item, while at the same time minimising its change inposition in the case where the content item is already aligned or closeto the sidebar.

In some example embodiments, the user input indicating a sidebarexpansion operation is a touch on a sidebar expansion icon and/or aswipe from the display directed away from the sidebar. This embodimentprovides the user a number of ways of enlarging the sidebar on atouchscreen device, namely by performing an easy to perform touchgesture on an expansion icon or by performing an intuitive swipegesture.

In some example embodiments, in the extracted state said sidebar isprovided with a header in which at least some metadata associated withthe or each content item is displayed. By providing a header in theexpanded sidebar, this embodiment provides additional information to theuser about the selected content item in a region of space that wouldotherwise be unused, thereby making an efficient use of screen realestate.

In some example embodiments, the user is permitted to continue tointeract with the graphical user interface of said application in such away that user input performed in relation to the area of the graphicaluser interface of said application visible with the sidebar present hasthe same effect on the application as said input would have had beforethe sidebar was displayed. By allowing a user to interact with theremaining visible area of the underlying application as if the sidebarwas not there ensures that the sidebar is as unobtrusive as is possiblewhile still providing functionality and information to the user.

In some example embodiments, the operational shortcut icons displayed inthe sidebar are ordered in a prioritised list. Ordering the list ofshortcuts can allow for more efficient interactions. If prioritised byfrequency of use (where it is either the frequency of use by theindividual or generally), the user knows where to look on the list forthe most common actions, for example, looking to the top of the list forthe action they are statistically most likely to perform. This allowsfor faster actions as the user will be able to anticipate where on thesidebar they are likely to direct a user input to perform an action,even before the sidebar has appeared.

In some example embodiments, the sidebar contains only operationalshortcut icons that represent operations capable of being performed bythe device on the type of content of the or each selected content item.By only showing icons that can be performed on the selected contentitem, space on the sidebar is not wasted by icons that cannot beperformed.

In some example embodiments, the sidebar contains operational shortcuticons that represent all the operations capable of being performed bythe device on the or each type of content of the selected content itemor items. This embodiment displays icons associated with all theoperations that can be performed on a selected content item or items,thus providing the user with the ability to perform any action on theselected item.

In some example embodiments, the selection of the operational shortcuticons to be displayed in the sidebar is dependent on the type or typesof content of the selected content item or items. In this embodiment,content items are categorised into ‘content types’, each of which have aselection of operational shortcut icons associated with them. Therefore,when displaying a list of operational shortcut icons associated with aselected item, to determine which icons to be displayed, the userinterface need only know the ‘content type’ of the content item, ratherthan individually determining what actions can be performed on thatcontent item. This reduces the processing power required for determiningthe selection of icons and also provides the user with a more consistentexperience when dealing with content items of the same type.

In some example embodiments, the memory further comprises instructionssuch that, where a selected content item is associated with two or moretypes of content, said sidebar is displayed at any one time in one of anumber of context types each corresponding to a respective one of saidtypes of content associated with said content item and in each of whichthe sidebar contains only operational shortcut icons that representoperations capable of being performed by the device on the respectivetype of content, wherein the displayed context type of the sidebar isconfigured to be changed in response to receipt of a user inputindicative of a sidebar context-change operation. It is possible forselected content items to hold data or have links to multiple contenttypes and therefore this embodiment provides a way for dealing withcontent items that contain multiple content types and which wouldrequire different shortcut menu items based on the desired context. Byproviding separate, interchangeable context states for the sidebarsdepending on content type, an intuitive, cleaner user interface isprovided that allows users to perform a multitude of actions withoutcluttering the display with a unrelated icons and without necessarilyhaving to leave the application to initiate actions from an applicationbetter suited for the content type in question.

In some example embodiments, the instructions to display in the sidebarone or more fragments representing a portion of another applicationdifferent from the application currently in focus on the display. Whilea sidebar is being displayed in juxtaposition with an application, thisembodiment provides a way for the user to have access to information orfunctions of other applications that may be relevant to the selectedcontent item, without having to leave the original application.

In some example embodiments, the fragment is displayed responsive to thetype of content of said content item. By ensuring that the fragmentdisplayed is responsive to the type of selected content item, thisembodiment ensures that only fragments that contain information orfunctions that could be related to the selected content item aredisplayed, therefore saving screen real estate as unneeded fragments arenot displayed.

In some example embodiments, the fragment presents information obtainedfrom said another application in said sidebar. If a fragment presentsinformation obtained from another application, this enables the user toaccess the information without having to leave the application, therebyimproving efficiency for the user and reducing system load by reducingthe need to start and stop applications to access the information andreturn to the original application.

In some example embodiments, the fragment provides a user of said devicewith access to functionality provided by said another application byinteracting with the fragment without the user having to navigate awayfrom said current application. If a fragment presents functionality of aseparate application, this enables the user to perform functions withouthaving to leave the application, thereby improving efficiency for theuser and reducing system load by reducing the need to start and stopapplications to access the function and return to the originalapplication.

In some example embodiments, the fragment is displayed only when saidsidebar is displayed in an extracted state having an increased width andcontaining enlarged operational shortcut icons in place of respectiveoperational shortcut icons. In this embodiment, fragments are onlydisplayed in the extracted state of the sidebar, ensuring that thenon-extracted state of the sidebar is not over cluttered withinformation and functionality relating to separate application.

In some example embodiments, the sidebar provides a visual indication ofthe availability of said fragment in said extended state of saidsidebar. This embodiment provides a way for the user to know whatfragments they can utilise while in an extended state of a sidebar byproviding the user with a visual indication of the availability of thefragment.

In some example embodiments, the instructions which when executed by oneor more of the processors configure the device such that any of one ormore of a plurality of applications can cause said sidebar to bedisplayed in response to receiving said user input performed in relationto one or more selectable content items represented in a graphical userinterface said applications. In this embodiment, the sidebar isavailable on a plurality of applications, thereby providing the userwith a consistent experience across multiple applications. Byencouraging consistency in the user experience, the user can carry outfunctions more efficiently as once they know how to perform asidebar-related function in one application, they will be able toperform similar actions in other applications, without having to relearnuser interactions for that application. This can also result in lowermemory usage as multiple applications can share the same code or haveaccess to the same API.

In some example embodiments, the sidebar is always displayed in the samelocation on the screen, providing the user with a consistent userexperience and allowing the user to anticipate where interactions mighthappen.

In some example embodiments, as a result of a user selecting anoperational shortcut icon in the sidebar, the sidebar provides a visualindication that said operational shortcut icon has been selected,thereby making it clear to the user that their selection of the icon hasresulted in an action relating to the shortcut icon.

In some example embodiments, after the selection of the operationalshortcut icon in the sidebar, all the components of the sidebar aredismissed, said dismissal being animated. Dismissing the sidebar afteran icon has been selected ensures that screen space is not wasted, asonce an icon has been selected and the associated action performed,there is no need to display the sidebar. By animating this dismissal itis made clear to the user that an action has now been performed and thesidebar is no longer required.

In some example embodiments, the animated dismissal of said selectedoperational shortcut icon is different from the animated dismissal ofthe other components of the sidebar. This difference in animationprovides the user with an indication of which icon has been selected andtherefore which action is being performed.

In some example embodiments, the difference in animated dismissal ofsaid selected operational shortcut and said other components of thesidebar is a delay in commencement of said animation and/or a differencein speed of said animation. By providing a difference in speed orintroducing a delay in the animation, this embodiment provides the userwith an indication of which icon has been selected, but also increasesthe amount of time it remains on the screen, visible to the user, whileother icons are removed faster. This is advantageous as it ensures thatscreen real estate is freed up quickly for the area under the rest ofthe sidebar, but the part of the sidebar related to the selected actionremains longer so the user can still see what has been selected.

Other example embodiments of the present disclosure will be apparent tothose of ordinary skill in the art from a review of the followingdetailed description in conjunction with the drawings, and may berelated to a computer implemented method as well as the alreadydescribed electronic device.

DEFINITIONS

References are made to content, specifically content items and contenttypes. In this specification, content items (also referred to as‘items’) are defined as any entities displayed to the user that can beselected and can have actions performed on the data or media that theyrepresent. For example, in many of the illustrative examples used, emailmessages are considered content items because they can be selected bythe user interface and there are a number of actions (such as ‘forward’and ‘reply’) that can be applied to them. Similarly, images are alsopresented as content items in the illustrative examples as they can beselected and have actions such as ‘share’ or ‘delete’ performed on them.The content items used in these examples are not limiting, and aredeliberately chosen to be simple examples for ease of illustration. Morecomplex, abstract examples of content may include grid locations on amapping application. One could select a random point on a mappingsoftware, and that would be associated with a geographical coordinatefor which there may be actions that can be applied (such as ‘placemarker’ or ‘calculate directions to’ action). Another example of contentitem could be an application itself, as on selecting a visualrepresentation of the application, the user can perform actions on itsuch as ‘uninstall’. Content type allows for a categorisation of contentto more easily determine what actions would be available for eachindividual content item. Generally content items of the same type willhave similar actions that can be performed on them.

Many of the proposed solutions in this application rely on user input.While the term user input is very broad, in the illustrative examplescontained herein, a number of types of user input are used. However, theuser inputs in the examples should not lead to the exclusion of otheruser inputs from the scope of the application when reference is made toa user input or gesture. A gesture includes a static or moving touchdetected by a touch-sensitive display, a 3-dimensional (3D) spatialmovement detected by spatial sensors, a touch or 3D spatial movementdetected by an optical sensor, an audible input, including a voicecommand, detected by a speech or audible recognition device ormicrophone, depression of a physical key or button, and so forth. Inaddition, a camera may be utilised to capture and interpret gestures,for example eye movements for controlling user input. Other types ofgestures may be successfully utilized. While the examples used aregenerally described with reference to touch screen devices, the proposedsolutions can be used with other user input means such as track pads,mouse pointers, optical sensors, speech or audible recognition devices,including one or more microphones, physical keys, and one or morecameras. The concept of touching a point on the surface of a touchscreen can be easily translated to other user interface gestures such asclicking on a point on a screen with a mouse, or pointing at a pointwith an off-surface gesture. The use of touch screen gestures in theexample embodiments are purely for illustrative purposes and the scopeof the proposed solutions are not limited to these user interfaces orthese specific gestures.

When stating that a gesture or operation is ‘performed in relation to acontent item’, this means that the gesture or operation was directedtowards a specific content item. For example, while a user may beoperating a mouse on a surface separate from the surface of the displayof the electronic device, those movements of the mouse may be performedby the user in relation to content displayed on the screen, even ifthere is no physical connection between the two, only a logical orvirtual one.

The term sidebar is used to describe the user interface element thatrepresents the shortcut menu. A sidebar may be an element located at theside of the screen of the electronic device or it may be at the side ofan application window or some other virtual edge within the screen. Theterm sidebar does not limit the element to being at any particular side,as it may be positioned at the top or bottom, or any conceivable edge ofa physical or logical boundary.

Modal and non-modal is used to differentiate the behaviour of certaintypes of user interface elements. If a user interface element is modal,it means that on initiating that element, the rest of the applicationenters into a different ‘mode’ where the behaviour is different fromthat if the user interface element had not been initiated. For example,an element that, when initiated prevents the use of the underlying userinterface (for example by greying it out and removing its responsivenessto user input), would be considered modal. A non-modal element, on theother hand, is one that, when initiated, still permits the use of theunderlying user interface as though the element were not there (in otherwords, its responsiveness to user input is maintained), except for theregions that are directly affected by the initiated element. For exampleif a side menu appears that can be interacted with, but still allows theuser to interact with the elements of the underlying user interface thatare not obscured by the side menu, then the side menu would beconsidered non-modal.

The side menu may also be considered non-modal if a user is permitted toperform all or a subset of interactions that they could perform beforethe appearance of a menu. For example, a user may be able to scroll theview of the underlying user interface while a side menu is displayed,and may or may not be able to perform other interactions. Theresponsiveness of the underlying user interface in a non-modal systemneed not be restricted to interactions with selectable items displayedin the user interface, but may also include responsiveness to generaluser interactions such as changing the view of an application, orperforming actions directed to the displayed application. For example,the user input may be for performing an action in relation to thegraphical user interface. The action may be a navigation action, forexample to cause navigation to different graphical user interface panesor windows. Such an action may include a peek operation to peek at apartial view of another application. For example, if more than oneapplication is running and different application windows or panes areoverlaid, the action may be to move a currently displayed pane to peekat an underlying pane. Such actions may cause the result of the sidemenu being dismissed. However, the action itself is in relation to thegraphical user interface or the selectable items displayed, and is notsolely in relation to the menu itself.

The purpose of defining modality is that modal interface elements ‘stealfocus’ and affect the application as a whole when initiated, whereas anon-modal interface is able to operate at the same time as otherinterface elements without affecting their behaviour. Modal interfacesoften require more user interactions when compared with non-modalinterfaces because the user must take positive action to dismiss theinitiated element and return the interface to the state before the modalelement was initiated.

Reference will now be made to FIG. 1 which illustrates an electronicdevice 201 in which example embodiments described in the presentdisclosure can be applied.

In the illustrated example embodiment, the electronic device 201 is acommunication device and, more particularly, is a mobile communicationdevice having data and voice communication capabilities, and thecapability to communicate with other computer systems; for example, viathe Internet.

Depending on the functionality provided by the electronic device 201, invarious example embodiments the electronic device 201 may be amultiple-mode communication device configured for both data and voicecommunication, a mobile telephone, such as a phone, a wearable computersuch as a watch, a tablet computer such as a slate computer, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), or a computer system. The electronic device 201may take other forms apart from those specifically listed above. Theelectronic device may also be referred to as a mobile communicationsdevice, a communication device, a mobile device and, in some cases, as adevice.

The electronic device 201 includes a controller including one or moreprocessors 240 (such as a microprocessor) which controls the overalloperation of the electronic device 201. The processor 240 interacts withdevice subsystems such as a wireless communication subsystem 211 forexchanging radio frequency signals with a wireless network 101 toperform communication functions. The processor 240 is communicablycoupled with additional device subsystems including one or more outputinterfaces 205 (such as a display 204 and/or a speaker 256 and/orelectromagnetic (EM) radiation source 257), one or more input interfaces206 (such as a camera 253, microphone 258, keyboard (not shown), controlbuttons (not shown), a navigational input device (not shown), and/or atouch-sensitive overlay (not shown)) associated with a touchscreendisplay 204, an orientation subsystem 249, memory (such as flash memory244, random access memory (RAM) 246, read only memory (ROM) 248, etc.),auxiliary input/output (I/O) subsystems 250, a data port 252 (which maybe a serial data port, such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) data port),a near field communications (NFC) subsystem 265, a short-rangecommunication subsystem 262 and other device subsystems generallydesignated as 264. Some of the subsystems shown in FIG. 1 performcommunication-related functions, whereas other subsystems may provide“resident” or on-device functions.

In at least some example embodiments, the electronic device 201 mayinclude a touchscreen display which acts as both an input interface 206(i.e. touch-sensitive overlay) and an output interface 205 (i.e.display). The touchscreen display may be constructed using atouch-sensitive input surface which is connected to an electroniccontroller and which overlays the display 204. The touch-sensitiveoverlay and the electronic controller provide a touch-sensitive inputinterface 206 and the processor 240 interacts with the touch-sensitiveoverlay via the electronic controller.

As noted above, in some example embodiments, the electronic device 201may include a communication subsystem 211 which allows the electronicdevice 201 to communicate over a wireless network 101. The communicationsubsystem 211 includes a receiver 212, a transmitter 213, and associatedcomponents, such as one or more antenna elements 214 and 215, localoscillators (LOs) 216, and a processing module such as a digital signalprocessor (DSP) 217. The antenna elements 214 and 215 may be embedded orinternal to the electronic device 201 and a single antenna may be sharedby both receiver and transmitter. The particular design of the wirelesscommunication subsystem 211 depends on the wireless network 101 in whichelectronic device 201 is intended to operate. The wireless network 101may, for example, be a cellular (such as GSM, GPRS, CDMA and EDGE)and/or a non-cellular network (for example local WiFi networks).

In at least some example embodiments, the electronic device 201 maycommunicate with any one of a plurality of fixed transceiver basestations of the wireless network 101 within its geographic coveragearea. The electronic device 201 may send and receive communicationsignals over the wireless network 101 after the required networkregistration or activation procedures have been completed. Signalsreceived by the antenna 214 through the wireless network 101 are inputto the receiver 212, which may perform such common receiver functions assignal amplification, frequency down conversion, filtering, channelselection, etc., as well as analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion. A/Dconversion of a received signal allows more complex communicationfunctions such as demodulation and decoding to be performed in the DSP217. In a similar manner, signals to be transmitted are processed,including modulation and encoding, for example, by the DSP 217. TheseDSP-processed signals are input to the transmitter 213 fordigital-to-analog (D/A) conversion, frequency up conversion, filtering,amplification, and transmission to the wireless network 101 via theantenna 215. The DSP 217 not only processes communication signals, butmay also provide for receiver and transmitter control. For example, thegains applied to communication signals in the receiver 212 and thetransmitter 213 may be adaptively controlled through automatic gaincontrol algorithms implemented in the DSP 217.

In some example embodiments, the auxiliary input/output (I/O) subsystems250 may include an external communication link or interface; forexample, an ethernet connection. The electronic device 201 may includeother wireless communication interfaces for communicating with othertypes of wireless networks; for example, a wireless network such as anorthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) network. The auxiliaryI/O subsystems 250 may include a vibrator for providing vibratorynotifications in response to various events on the electronic device 201such as receipt of an electronic communication or incoming phone call,or for other purposes such as haptic feedback (touch feedback).

In some example embodiments, the electronic device 201 also includes aremovable memory module 230 (typically including flash memory, such as aremovable memory card) and a memory interface 232. Network access may beassociated with a subscriber or user of the electronic device 201 viathe memory module 230, which may be a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)card for use in a GSM network or other type of memory card for use inthe relevant wireless network type. The memory module 230 is inserted inor connected to the memory card interface 232 of the electronic device201 in order to operate in conjunction with the wireless network 101.

In at least some example embodiments, the electronic device 201 alsoincludes a device orientation subsystem 249 including at least oneorientation sensor 251 which is connected to the processor 240 and whichis controlled by one or a combination of a monitoring circuit andoperating software. The orientation sensor 251 detects the orientationof the device 201 or information from which the orientation of thedevice 201 can be determined, such as acceleration. In some exampleembodiments, the orientation sensor 251 is an accelerometer, such as athree-axis accelerometer. An accelerometer is a sensor which convertsacceleration from motion (e.g. movement of the device 201 or a portionthereof due to the strike force) and gravity which are detected by asensing element into an electrical signal (producing a correspondingchange in output). Accelerometers may be available in one, two or threeaxis configurations. Higher order axis configurations are also possible.Accelerometers may produce digital or analog output signals depending onthe type of accelerometer.

An orientation sensor 251 may generate orientation data which specifiesthe orientation of the electronic device 201. The orientation data, inat least some example embodiments, specifies the orientation of thedevice 201 relative to the gravitational field of the earth.

In some example embodiments, the orientation subsystem 249 may includeother orientation sensors 251, instead of or in addition toaccelerometers. For example, in various example embodiments, theorientation subsystem 249 may include a gravity sensor, a gyroscope, atilt sensor, an electronic compass or other suitable sensor, orcombinations thereof. In some example embodiments, the deviceorientation subsystem 249 may include two or more orientation sensors251 such as an accelerometer and an electronic compass.

The electronic device 201 also includes a battery 238 as a power source,which is typically one or more rechargeable batteries that may becharged for example, through charging circuitry coupled to a batteryinterface 236 such as the data port 252. The battery 238 provideselectrical power to at least some of the electrical circuitry in theelectronic device 201, and the battery interface 236 provides amechanical and electrical connection for the battery 238. The batteryinterface 236 is coupled to a regulator (not shown) which provides powerV+ to the circuitry of the electronic device 201.

The electronic device 201 stores data 227 in an erasable persistentmemory, which in one example embodiment is the flash memory 244. Invarious example embodiments, the data 227 includes service dataincluding information required by the electronic device 201 to establishand maintain communication with the wireless network 101. The data 227may also include user application data such as email messages, addressbook and contact information, calendar and schedule information, notepaddocuments, image files, and other commonly stored user informationstored on the electronic device 201 by its user, and other data. Thedata 227 stored in the persistent memory (e.g. flash memory 244) of theelectronic device 201 may be organized, at least partially, into one ormore databases or data stores. The databases or data stores may containdata items of the same data type or associated with the sameapplication. For example, email messages, contact records, and taskitems may be stored in individual databases within the device memory.

The electronic device 201 may, in some example embodiments, be a mobilecommunication device which may provide two principal modes ofcommunication: a data communication mode and a voice communication mode.In the data communication mode, a received data signal such as a textmessage, an email message, or Web page download will be processed by thecommunication subsystem 211 and input to the processor 240 for furtherprocessing. For example, a downloaded Web page may be further processedby a browser application or an email message may be processed by anemail messaging application and output to the display 204. A user of theelectronic device 201 may also compose data items, such as emailmessages; for example, using the input devices in conjunction with thedisplay 204. These composed items may be transmitted through thecommunication subsystem 211 over the wireless network 101.

In the voice communication mode, the electronic device 201 providestelephony functions and operates as a typical cellular phone. Theoverall operation is similar, except that the received signals would beoutput to the speaker 256 and signals for transmission would begenerated by a transducer such as the microphone 258. The telephonyfunctions are provided by a combination of software/firmware (i.e., avoice communication module) and hardware (i.e., the microphone 258, thespeaker 256 and input interfaces 206). Alternative voice or audio I/Osubsystems, such as a voice message recording subsystem, may also beimplemented on the electronic device 201. Although voice or audio signaloutput is typically accomplished primarily through the speaker 256, thedisplay screen 204 may also be used to provide an indication of theidentity of a calling party, duration of a voice call, or other voicecall related information.

The processor 240 operates under stored program control and executessoftware modules 221 stored in memory such as persistent memory; forexample, in the flash memory 244. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the softwaremodules 221 include operating system software 223 and other softwareapplications 225 such a user interface (UI) module. In the exampleembodiment of FIG. 1, the UI module is implemented as a stand-aloneapplication 225. However, in other example embodiments, the UI modulecould be implemented as part of the operating system 223 or anotherapplication 225 or collection of applications.

The UI module may be provided as a computer software product. Thecomputer software product may be provided in, on or supported by acomputer readable medium which could be provided as all possiblepermanent and non-permanent forms of computer readable medium eithertransitory in nature, such as in a data transmission signal for examplesent over the internet, or non-transitory in nature such as in the RAM246 of the device 201 or other, non-volatile storage such as memory 230.On the other hand the computer readable medium may be a non-transitorycomputer readable medium comprising all computer-readable media, withthe sole exception being a transitory, propagating signal.

Referring now to FIG. 2, the electronic device 201 could be a cellular(or mobile) phone 100. For example, the phone 100 may have the abilityto run third party applications which are stored on the phone.

The phone 100 may include the components discussed above with referenceto FIG. 1 or a subset of those components. The phone 100 includes ahousing 104 which houses at least some of the components discussed abovewith reference to FIG. 1.

In the example embodiment illustrated, the phone includes a display 204,which may be a touchscreen display which acts as an input interface 206.The display 204 is disposed within the phone 100 so that it is viewableat a front side 102 of the phone 100. That is, a viewable side of thedisplay 204 is disposed on the front side 102 of the phone. In theexample embodiment illustrated, the display 204 is framed by the housing104.

The example phone 100 also includes other input interfaces 206 such asone or more buttons, keys or navigational input mechanisms. In theexample illustrated, at least some of these additional input interfaces206 are disposed for actuation at a front side 102 of the phone.

Example Tablet Electronic Device

Referring now to FIG. 3, a front view of another example of anelectronic device 201, a tablet computer 300, is illustrated. The tabletcomputer 300 may include many of the same features and components of thephone 100 of FIG. 2. However, the tablet computer 300 of FIG. 3 isgenerally larger than the phone 100. The tablet computer 300 may includethe components discussed above with reference to FIG. 1 or a subset ofthose components. The tablet computer 300 includes a housing 304 whichhouses at least some of the components discussed above with reference toFIG. 1. The tablet computer 300 could support cellular wirelesscommunication and/or non-cellular wireless communication.

The tablet computer 300 includes a display 204, which may be atouchscreen display which acts as an input interface 206. The display204 is disposed within the tablet computer 300 so that it is viewable ata front side 302 of the tablet computer 300. That is, a viewable side ofthe display 204 is disposed on the front side 302 of the tablet computer300. In the example embodiment illustrated, the display 204 is framed bythe housing 304.

Sidebar Menu System

Reference will now be made to FIG. 4 which illustrates the initiation ofa sidebar 444 on an electronic device 201. In this example, state 401shows an application displayed on the display 204 of the electronicdevice 201, where the application presents a list of content items 410.A user may provide a user input in relation to one of the content items411. In the case where the display 204 is a touchscreen, this user inputcould be a touch on the content item 411. Alternatively, the user inputmay be any other user interaction in relation to the content item 411,such as a press on an associated position of a trackpad, or anoff-surface gesture toward the content item 411. In this illustrativeexample, the gesture is pressing on or performing an operation on thecontent item 411 for a short amount of time, for example 100milliseconds. Pressing down on the content item 411 for this shortperiod of time shall be referred to as a ‘short press’ 420.

On pressing down on this content item for 100 ms, the content item 411becomes ‘marked’ or ‘selected’. Some indication may be provided to theuser to show that the content item 411 is now marked, such as byproviding a border 425 around the content item 411 as shown in state402. This indication may be in the form of audible or tactile feedbackor any combination of output available to the electronic device 201 forportraying to the user that the unmarked content item 411 is now marked.

If the user performs a gesture exceeding a time interval, also referredto as a ‘long press’ 430, in relation to the content item, then there isa further change to state 403. This ‘long press’ 430 may be initiatedeither by holding down on a content item continuously for 100 ms andthen a further 350 ms for a total of at least 450 ms, or it can beinitiated by holding down on an already marked item for 350 ms. Otheruser inputs may be considered as equivalent to a long press, for exampleby repeating an operation or gesture on a content item may be consideredas a gesture exceeding a time interval. For example, a double or tripleclick of a button or mouse may be considered as a ‘long press’. Once thelong press 430 has occurred, a sidebar 444 appears. The sidebar 444 mayappear instantly or through a transitional animation, such as by slidingin from off the screen or outside the window of the present applicationin which the sidebar 444 is invoked. Once the user releases 440 from the‘long press’ there is a further transition to state 404 where thesidebar is ‘pinned’ to the screen, as can be indicated, for example, bythe greying out of all or part of the underlying content or by theaddition of a graphical element 450 to the sidebar 444. On the sidebar444 becoming ‘pinned’ the greying out of all or part of the underlyingscreen may also indicate to the user that they cannot interact with thatgreyed out portion as they normally would until the sidebar has left the‘pinned’ mode.

The sidebar 444 contains a number of icons related to or representingactions (also referred to as functions or operations) that can beperformed on or in relation to the selected content item 411. Forexample, in an email application, on selecting an email message contentitem, the icons displayed on the sidebar 444 may be shortcuts to ‘reply’461, ‘forward’ 462, ‘mark unread’ 463, ‘move’ 464, ‘flag’ 465 or‘delete’ 480 actions. Icons that are not necessarily related to theselected item 444, but rather to the sidebar 444 or underlyingapplication itself may also be included, such as the shortcut icon forthe ‘select more’ 470 action which will be discussed later.

The icons displayed on the sidebar 444 may be placed in a prioritisedlist. The icons may be prioritised, for example, by the frequency of useof the associated action by the specific user, or the establishedfrequency of use by a larger group of users, thereby ensuring that themost common icons are listed with priority to less commonly used icons.The sidebar may only display icons related to operations that can beperformed on the selected content item, and therefore ensuring that noicons are displayed that cannot be acted upon (thereby preventing spaceon the sidebar being unnecessarily used up). The sidebar may displayicons relating to all the operations that can be performed on theselected item, thereby providing the user the ability to easily performany action that can be performed on a content item when they select it.These operations may be limited to the operations that can be performedby the underlying application itself or a number of applications on theelectronic device. The sidebar may display icons related to operationsthat, for one reason or another is not, available to perform andtherefore is displayed, but greyed out or disabled.

Once the user has reached state 404 by releasing the ‘long press’, theuser may select one of the icons on the sidebar 444 to initiate theaction associated with the shortcut icon. For example, selecting the‘reply’ icon 461 may create a new message in reply to the email messagecurrently selected, or selecting the ‘delete’ icon 480 could eitherdelete the selected content item 411 or provide the user with an optionto delete the selected content item 411. In this description release ofa long press may be equivalent to the absence of further repetition of agesture, or may be the detection of another user input from anotherbutton or input means.

On selecting one of the shortcut icons on the sidebar 444, the sidebar444 may disengage and disappear from the screen. Alternatively, thesidebar 444 may remain until the action associated with the shortcuticon or a certain step of the associated action is completed. A furtheralternative is that the selection of one of the shortcut icons mayresult in a change of state of the sidebar.

The user interaction illustrated in FIG. 4 involves a gesture exceedinga time interval, also referred to as a ‘long press’ of a content item411 to bring up a sidebar 444 which remains ‘pinned’ to the screen afterthe user releases from the ‘long press’. On release from the ‘longpress’ the user is free to select one of the shortcut icons from thesidebar 444 to perform an associated action. An alternative to thisbasic user interaction is illustrated in FIG. 5, where multitouch isused to initiate and interact with a sidebar 444. One hand, for examplethe left hand 505, can be used to press down on a content item 411. Oncethis press has continued long enough to be considered a ‘long press’which in this example is after 450 ms, the state 501 is reached wherethe sidebar 444 appears with one or more shortcut icons relating toactions associated with the content item 411 selected.

At this point, rather than releasing the left hand 505 and therefore‘pinning’ the sidebar to the screen, the user may alternatively useanother hand or finger to interact with the icons on the sidebar 444.The user may utilise other input means to interact with the icons on theside bar 444. This interaction may be a simple press or tap of thedesired icon of the sidebar 444 while still performing a ‘long press’ onthe content item, to perform the action associated with the icon pressedor tapped.

When performing a simple press or tap with the other hand or finger onthe shortcut icons on the sidebar 444, it is the release of the otherhand or finger that causes the associated action to begin. However, ifthe user pressing on the shortcut icon does not release the other handor finger from the shortcut icon, a different behaviour may occur asshown in state 502. Here the user has pressed on location 520 of thescreen which is where the ‘delete’ shortcut icon 480 is located. Bypressing on this shortcut icon, either instantly or after a certainperiod of time, the ‘delete’ shortcut icon 480 may transform into thelarger ‘delete’ shortcut icon 580. This transformation can be animatedor instant, and results in an icon that provides the user with moreinformation regarding the icon being pressed. This additionalinformation may be in the form of a textual description of the action asshown by the ‘Delete’ text appearing on 580 or could be a more detailedicon or some other portrayal of information such as audible or tactilefeedback. The additional information or description may project from themenu, individually. The shortcut icon 480 may be the only one displayedas a larger shortcut icon 580. The description may project or extendfrom the menu, and this may be projecting or extending from an edge ofthe display. User input may cause the description to move out from themenu, and another user input may cause the description to retract intothe menu, until the description ceases to be displayed.

This transition to the larger icon 580 indicates to the user thatreleasing from the press on that icon will result in that action beingperformed. Should the user slide the finger to another shortcut icon,the larger shortcut icon 580 will return to its original smaller size480 and the shortcut icon now being pressed will expand to the largershortcut icon. So while the user uses the left hand to ‘long press’ on acontent item 411, thus bringing up the sidebar 444, the user can useanother hand or finger to slide over individual shortcut icons in thesidebar 444 to be provided with more information about the possibleactions associated with each shortcut icon As long as the user does notrelease the other hand or finger while pressing on one of these shortcuticons, the action will not be performed. Instead, the user may releasethe other hand or finger on a point of the screen 204 where there is noshortcut icon and therefore no action associated with the shortcut iconsis performed.

When performing this multitouch interaction, there is still therequirement of performing a ‘long press’ on the content item 411, whichcould mean subsequent multitouch interaction will take at least as longas the ‘long press’ to perform, resulting in a long delay between eachaction. To overcome this delay, after a user has performed a two-handedaction, an ‘accelerator’ is provided to quickly perform actionsrepeatedly. The system may adapt to the frequency of the shortcut actionusage such that the more the user uses shortcut actions, the quicker theshortcut menu will appear on the screen, enabling quicker interactions.

A further implementation may not even require the visible appearance ofthe sidebar 444 once the ‘accelerator’ is provided. As when performingrepeated actions the physical position of the shortcut icon on thesidebar for a specific action may remain the same, therefore a userwould already know where to tap with the other hand or finger and maytherefore not need to wait for the sidebar 444 to have appeared orfinished transitioning onto the screen.

As shown in FIG. 4, the sidebar 444 may enter the screen afterperforming a ‘long press’ on a content item 411 which, in this example,is 450 ms. To initiate the sidebar faster for repeated actions, thepreviously described ‘accelerator’ can be utilised such that as anaction is repeated, the time required before displaying the sidebar isreduced. A further mechanism for increasing the speed of userinteraction is illustrated in FIG. 6. At state 601 the user has alreadyperformed a ‘long press’ 610 on content item 411, resulting in thesidebar 444 appearing. While the user is pressing on the content item411, they can drag 620 the finger towards one of the shortcut icons onthe sidebar 444.

At state 602 the user has dragged their finger closer to the ‘delete’shortcut icon 480. The highlight effect on the marked content item 411may be removed or faded away during this dragging. To provide feedbackto the user, the screen 204 may display the content item as also movingwith the drag, as indicated by the change in vertical position ofcontent item 411 in state 602. This may therefore also result in thecontent list 410 itself scrolling with the dragging. This feedback maynot be limited to a change in vertical position of the content item, butmay instead show a change in horizontal position instead of or as well.References to ‘lists’ of content items need not be limited to listsarranged in one dimension, but can also be lists spanning multipledimensions, such as grids of content items.

Alternatively, some other visual indication may be used, such as themovement of a semi-transparent visual copy of the content item 411 tocoincide with the movement of the dragging motion 620. Should the userrelease the content item 411 before reaching the sidebar 444, thesidebar 444 may be dismissed and the user may return to the content list410, or the sidebar 444 may become ‘pinned’ if the content item 411 hasalready been selected for a certain period of time before beginning thedrag gesture.

Dragging 630 the content item 411 further may result in the user'sfinger pressing on one of the shortcut icons of the sidebar 444, asshown in state 603 where the user has now reached the ‘delete’ shortcuticon 480. On reaching the sidebar 444, the highlight around the selectedcontent item 411 may return and non-affected content items may bedimmer. Releasing the user's finger at this stage over the ‘delete’shortcut icon 480 would execute the delete action.

If the user held 640 their finger over one of the shortcut icons for acertain period of time, such as 100 ms, a further transition to state604 may occur. Here the ‘delete’ shortcut icon 480 is unfolded,projected, extended or otherwise transformed to provide a largershortcut icon 580, providing the user with the label of the action.Releasing the user's finger at this point would execute the deleteaction, but dragging the finger away from the sidebar 444, into theunderlying application user interface and then releasing may dismiss thesidebar 444 or may result in it becoming ‘pinned’. If instead the userdrags their finger up and down the sidebar, a similar effect to FIG. 5is achieved, where on holding the finger over each shortcut icon, theshortcut icons are transformed into larger shortcut icons to provide theuser more information about the actions associated with the shortcuticons.

If at state 604, the user drags their finger from a shortcut icon andoff the screen 204 itself onto the frame of the device 201 while thesidebar 444 is still being displayed, then no action may be performed.Instead, the sidebar 444 may remain on the screen and the user wouldhave to perform a separate tap of the desired shortcut icon in order toperform the preferred associated action. This behaviour may be promotedto minimise the risk of accidently triggering an action.

In the same way that the multitouch interaction of FIG. 5 can bemodified to speed up actions with the sidebar 444 shortcut icons, thedragging interaction illustrated in FIG. 6 can also be used to speed upuser interactions.

At state 601, the content item 411 has already been ‘long pressed’ andtherefore the sidebar 444 has already appeared. However, in this examplethe ‘long press’ requires 450 ms before the sidebar 444 appears. Toremove the need for this delay, this dragging interaction may be adaptedsuch that after a content item 411 has been ‘marked’ by a short press,which in this example requires 100 ms, the user may immediately startperforming a dragging action to the location where the sidebar 444usually is displayed. Although only a short press has been performed atthis point and therefore the sidebar has not been displayed yet, bydragging the user's finger to the area where the sidebar 444 normallyappears, the sidebar 444 may appear even before enough time has elapsedfor a ‘long press’ to have occurred. By performing this dragging action,the sidebar 444 can therefore be manually invoked to allow for quickaccess to the shortcut icons available.

A further way of increasing the speed of interaction is to perform ashort press on a content item such that a sidebar 444 has not beendisplayed yet, and then performing a concurrent touch, for example withanother finger, on the area that the sidebar 444 will appear. This waythe user does not have to wait for the sidebar to appear to perform theaction and does not have to perform a drag action to cause the sidebar444 to appear faster. A short press may result in the sidebar 444 beingdisplayed, but on release of a short press the sidebar 444 may bedismissed, which would be different behaviour from a long press, whereonce a long press is released the sidebar 444 may be ‘pinned’. In thisalternative embodiment, performing a short press on the content item 411does bring up the sidebar 444, so the concurrent touch can be performedin relation to a displayed sidebar 444.

Sidebar Expansion

The previous illustrative examples show a relatively small, unobtrusivesidebar 444 that contains a number of small shortcut icons and withvarious methods of expanding each individual shortcut icon to display amore detailed shortcut icon. While this emphasis on small unobtrusiveicons is useful in cases where the meaning of the icons are intuitive orthe user is already familiar with the icons and the actions theyperform, in some instances, however, it may be desirable for the user tobe able to see a more detailed version of all the icons, without havingto individually interact with each one to do so. Therefore, FIG. 7illustrates how the original sidebar 444 can be extracted to form alarger, more detailed sidebar 744.

State 701 of FIG. 7 shows the same state that can be reached though‘pinning’ the sidebar 444 in FIG. 4. From this ‘pinned’ state 701, thereare a number of possible gestures that can be performed to reach thefully extracted sidebar menu 744. The extraction shortcut icon 450 maybe tapped 710 or swiped 720 to cause the small sidebar 444 to transformto the larger expanded sidebar 744 in state 702. In this expandedsidebar 744, more detail may be provided to some or all of the shortcuticons, such as by providing a textual label indicating the associatedaction or by providing a more detailed icon. We can see that the smallgraphical icons of 461 to 465 have been transformed to the largershortcuts with labels in 761 to 765 respectively. The ‘select more’ 470and ‘delete’ 480 shortcut icons have also been expanded to the largericons 770 and 780.

The transition from small sidebar 444 to expanded sidebar 744 may beinstantaneous or through a transitional animation, such as atranslational movement further into the display 204. A header 750 mayalso be included in the expanded sidebar 744, which could provide moreinformation about the selected content item 411.

Another way of expanding the sidebar 444 may involve the user swiping730 anywhere on the screen 204 to extract the full sidebar 744 asillustrated by placing the user's finger on point 735 and swiping 730 tothe left.

Once the extracted sidebar 744 has been extracted, it may be beneficialto disable certain gestures to prevent any unintended actions such asthe Bezel-side-swipe gesture that can be used for swiping to next orprevious pages or applications. It may also be beneficial to preventunintended actions such as the Bezel-side-swipe gesture even before thesidebar 714 has been extracted, such as when the user has performed ashort press on a content item.

One way of dismissing the fully extracted sidebar 744 is for the user toprovide a user input in relation to a part of the screen not associatedwith the sidebar 744. For example, the user could perform a tap gestureon the underlying user interface to cause the extracted sidebar 744 tobe removed completely, either immediately or with a transitional effectlike an animation. There may be a separate gesture for returning thesidebar 744 to a non-expanded state 444, such as swiping to the right.Dismissing the pinned sidebar 444 may be achieved by performing agesture like tapping an area of the underlying user interface.

If a user has just performed a ‘long press’ on a content item 411 buthas not yet released their finger, the sidebar 444 will be displayed butmay not be in a pinned state. Therefore a further option may beavailable to dismiss the sidebar 444, such as by dragging the user'sfinger away from the point of initiation and releasing their finger

Once a user has selected a shortcut icon on the enlarged sidebar 744,the action may be performed and the sidebar 744 may automatically bedismissed as once the action has been performed the sidebar 744 may nolonger required. When selecting one of the enlarged shortcut icons, forexample the enlarged ‘mark unread’ icon 763, an indication may beprovided to the user to show that that icon has been selected. Thisindication may be a visual indication like highlighting the icon, or itcould be some other indication such as an audible indication orlocalised haptic feedback.

The visual indication may be provided in the way in which the sidebar744 is dismissed once the icon has been selected. One way of providingthis indication is to animate the components of the extended sidebar 744as they are being dismissed, but providing a different animation to theselected icon. For example, the animation for dismissing the selectedicon may be delayed or performed at a different speed compared to theanimation for the dismissal of the other components of the extendedsidebar 744. Such an animation may be a simple transverse movement offthe screen, such as a slide to the right. By introducing a delay orreducing the speed of the animation related to the selected icon meansthat it can be displayed on the screen 204 for longer, therefore givinga user a chance to see what icon they have selected rather than itquickly being dismissed like the other components of the sidebar, whichare dismissed promptly so as to free up screen space. This indicationmay not be limited to the extended sidebar 744, but may also be providedto the user when they select an icon on the normal sidebar 444.

Undo Operation

Referring now to FIG. 8, states 801 and 802 show the same multitouchactions as those performed in states 501 and 502 of FIG. 5 where, aftera content item 411 is marked, the user applies an action by pressing andreleasing one of the shortcut icons on the sidebar 444. The exampleillustrated in FIG. 8 shows a proposed ‘undo’ solution for this userinterface. In this example, the ‘undo’ solution is in reference toundoing a delete operation, but could be applied to other actionsperformed from within the user interface.

When a user input to delete a content item 411 is received, like tappingon the delete shortcut icon 580, there is a transition to state 803. Oninitiating the delete action, the content item 411 may be removed fromthe content list 410 and the data itself may be removed from the memoryentirely. The sidebar 444 may also be dismissed by carrying out thedeletion action and a deletion animation may take place indicating thecontent item 411 is being deleted. In this embodiment, once the deletionhas occurred, an ‘undo’ option is provided to the user to cover thesituation where the deletion was by accident or the user changed theirmind. This ‘undo’ option may be in the form of an undo button 835contained within an ‘undo’ container (or ‘widget’, which is a genericterm for an element of a GUI) 830 or simply an undo button 835 on itsown.

The ‘undo’ option may be provided as some transition from the selectedmenu item itself to make it clear that the ‘undo’ option that hasappeared will undo the action that has just been initiated. For exampleonce the delete button 580 is selected, it may transform into an ‘undodelete’ button 830. This transformation could be a rotation animation820 like the one illustrated, where the delete button 580 rotates aroundan axis to turn into the ‘undo delete’ container 830.

This undo button 835 may remain on the screen until the user selects theundo option, therefore reversing the action. The undo option 830 mayalso be dismissed when the user interacts with another location of thedisplay 204, hence indicating that the user is not interested in theundo option, thereby freeing that part of the screen again. The undooption 830 may remain on the screen even after the user has beguninteracting with the underlying screen and may only disappear after aminimum amount of time after the interaction has started.

The proposed undo solution allows for a faster completion of actions, asconfirmation is not required, while still allowing for easy correctionif the user carried out the action by mistake or has since changed theirmind. The proposed undo solution does not steal focus and is unobtrusiveas it will naturally disappear when it is clear that the user does notwish to carry out an undo command.

Multiple Content Types

Selecting content items from a content item list 410 may result in asidebar 444 appearing where there are icons relating to actions that canbe performed on the content item. In the illustrative examples presentedthus far, the content items selected have been email messages and,therefore, the icons in the sidebar 444 have related to actions that canbe performed on email messages (such as reply and forward). However, itis possible for selected content items to hold data or have links tomultiple content types. For example, an email message can be consideredan ‘email message’ content type, however it also contains data such ascontact details of the person who sent the message. A user who selectsthe ‘email message’ may wish to perform actions related to the contactdetails of the person who sent that email message and would thereforewant actions related to a ‘contact’ content type (such as ‘call’, ‘sendSMS’ or ‘view contact details’). Therefore, a solution is provided fordealing with content items that contain multiple content types and wouldtherefore require different shortcut menu items based on the desiredcontext.

FIG. 9 illustrates a proposed solution for managing content items withmultiple content types. State 901 shows an email application with anumbers of email message content items, with one content item 911 thatthe user wishes to interact with. The user can perform a ‘long press’920 and release 930 the content item 911 to summon a pinned sidebar 944.The pinned sidebar 944 may already be in the extracted state as shown instate 902 or may need to be expanded out by a swipe command (not shown)as described in FIG. 7.

The sidebar 944 shown in state 902 displays actions related to thecontent item in the context of an email message and therefore displaysshortcuts related to actions that can be performed on the selected emailmessage (such as ‘reply’ 761, ‘forward’ 762, ‘print’ 966, ‘easy flow’967 and ‘show all by’ 968). The header 950 of the extracted sidebar 944displays information about the email message, showing that the sidebar944 is in a state related to email message actions.

On receipt of a user input, such as selecting 940 an element of thesidebar 944, the state may change to 903 where the email message relatedsidebar 944 changes to a contact-related sidebar 999, displayingshortcuts to actions associated with the contact content type. Thechange from one sidebar context to another sidebar context may happeninstantly or through a transition such as an animation. One proposedtransition is a flip animation 945, where the email message-relatedsidebar 944 appears to flip over to reveal the contact-related sidebar999.

In this illustrative example, the contact-related sidebar 999 nowdisplays the contact name as the header 970, rather than the emailmessage details, and it now displays icons relating to actions that canbe performed on the contact content type (like call 982, send SMS 983,share 984, view 985 and invite 986). These actions may be performedwithin the email application itself, or can be performed by a separateapplication designed for dealing with contact-related actions, such asthe contacts application.

The example of a content item with message and contact content typesassociated with it has been discussed, but there are many other examplesthat could exist, such as a message content item containing data relatedto an attachment, or a calendar invite content item linked tosupplementary data like attachment or contact content types.Furthermore, a content item may have more than two content types, inwhich case there may be more than two context-sensitive sidebars thatthe user can switch between. For example, a calendar invite may havethree content types; a first for the calendar invite itself, a secondfor contacts (or invitees) in the calendar invite and a third forattachments in the calendar invite. An example of where more than threecontent types may be related to a single content item could be a musictrack content item which could have information relating to a musicalbum as well is being linked with data relating to the music artist.The artist-related sidebar could include options like performing aweb-search related to the artist, or looking for other music by theartist or finding pictures of the artist, the album-related sidebar maycontain options such as ‘add album to playlist’ or ‘change metadata’,and the track-related sidebar may have options like ‘play’ or ‘pause’.

In addition to icons relating to actions that can be performed on thecontent item, more advanced elements can also be displayed in thesidebar 999. For example, beneath the location 980 header and icon isinformation regarding the location of the contact representedgraphically on a map 981. It may also be possible to interact with themap, such as by zooming out or shifting the view or simply opening alarger map by selecting the map. While most of the example sidebarspresented thus far have mostly shown a list of actions that can beperformed on the content item, it is possible for advanced functionalitylike displaying static or interactive media related to the content itemin the sidebars 744, 944 or 999.

Certain functionality or information may also be provided to the userthat may otherwise not be available from within the underlyingapplication itself. Such functionality or information may be availablein the form of graphical user interface elements also referred to as‘fragments’. Fragments represent a portion of an application that can betemporarily obtained while still in an underlying application. Thesefragments may be considered as a portal into another application andallow other applications to provide functionality or information to theunderlying application, without requiring the user to leave theunderlying application. The location map 981 may be an example of such afragment, if the map functionality is not available from with theunderlying application itself, but a separate map application. Otherexamples of fragments could include music player controls, weatherinformation, clocks, social media information or functions, and thirdparty services. The fragments provide an interface into anotherapplication, and the user can interact and operate the other applicationfrom the menu without requiring navigation or launch of the otherapplication. User interaction with the fragment may cause additionalactions to be performed and additional information to be displayed. Forexample, if the menu is displaying a map showing the location of acontact, the display may provide options for actions which can beinitiated from the fragment. An example might be to providing directionsto the address of the location of the contact. The directions may beprovided in the menu or in an overlay of the graphical user interface.In another example, the user interaction with the fragment may cause achange to the other application. For example, if the fragment is aninterface to a social media application associated with either the useror the contact or both the user and the contact, the interface may allowfor a message to be entered into the fragment and that message may besent to the social media application which in turn updates the user's,the contact's or both the user and contact's accounts. In a morespecific example, the fragment may show a recent posting or statusupdate of a contact, and provide the ability for the user to comment orrespond in some manner to the posting or status update, withoutrequiring the user to launch the associated application.

To return to the original sidebar 944 or even to switch to a furthersidebar state related to a different content item type, the user canselect 990 a region of the screen 995 to initiate a change of sidebarstate.

By providing separate, interchangeable context states for the sidebarsdepending on content type, an intuitive, cleaner user interface isprovided that allows users to perform a multitude of actions withoutcluttering the display 204 with a multitude of unrelated icons andwithout necessarily having to leave the application to initiate actionsfrom an application better suited for the content type in question.

Multiple Select

As mentioned before, one of the shortcut icons that may be available onthe sidebar 444 is the ‘select more’ or ‘multiple select’ 470 icon.Selecting this icon can enable a ‘multiple select’ mode, thus allowingfor easier and more intuitive methods of selecting multiple contentitems.

FIG. 10 illustrates one proposed method of performing multipleselections. At state 1001, the user has already initiated the multipleselect mode. In multiple select mode, the positioning of the ‘multipleselect’ icon 470 may change on the sidebar 1044 so that it is at the topto indicate that ‘multiple select’ mode is activated. Furthermore, inmultiple select mode, a cancel icon 1015 may be available for exitingmultiple select mode and this cancel icon may either be on the sidebar1044 or in its own bar 1020.

At state 1001, the user has already selected two content items 1011 and1013, and this selection may be indicated to the user by a graphicalmeans, such as tick marks overlaying the content items and/orhighlighting the selected items and/or greying out non-selected items.There may also be some indication of the number of items alreadyselected or the type of items selected, like in the cancel bar 1020.

If the user wishes to expand the selection, one option available may beto provide some user input to trigger a selection expansion mode, suchas by pressing a specific button on the sidebar 1044 or by pressing 1025on one of the content items 1012 at the extremity of the list ofselected items and holding that press 1020 for a predetermined amount oftime (about 200 ms in this illustrative example). On completing thislong hold, the state may change to 1002 where some indication of aselection expansion mode is shown, such as the selection handle 1030.The user can hold 1040 their finger on the last item of the selection asshown in state 1003, and drag 1050 it down to expand the selection. Bydragging the user's finger down to a different area of the screen 1055,previously unselected content items 1013 and 1014 may be selected, asindicated in state 1004 where items 1011, 1012, 1023 and 1024 areselected content items. This expansion of the selection may also occurby holding on the first item in the selection and dragging upward.Similarly the selection may also be reduced by dragging the user'sfinger into the selection, for example by dragging upwards rather thandownwards in state 1003 of FIG. 10.

Another way of selecting multiple content items is discussed in relationto FIG. 11. In a state where the sidebar is not initiated and the useris faced with a collection of content items 410, the user may usemultitouch gestures to initiate multiple select mode. Such a multitouchgesture could include placing two fingers at either extremity of thelist of content items that the user wishes to select. FIG. 11 shows apossible consequence of pressing one finger on content item 1112 and theother at content item 1114, holding for a certain length of time andthen releasing 1110. Performing this action selects the two contentitems touched and all the content items in between and may initiatemultiple select mode by causing the multiple select sidebar 1044 andcancel bar 1020 to be displayed. These bars may be introduced instantlyor through an animated transition like a slide in as shown by movementarrows 1140 for the sidebar 1044 and 1130 for cancel bar 1020. Thesidebar 1044 may display the icons only relating to actions that can besuccessfully performed on all the content items selected, or it maydisplay only a subset of these icons or it may display icons for actionsthat can only be performed on some of the content items, but notnecessarily all.

While in multiple select mode, the user can also add content items totheir selection that are not currently visible on the screen. Forexample, when using the expansion handle 1030 of FIG. 10, while the useris dragging their finger to select additional items, once the userreaches the end of the visible screen or window, an automatic scrollcould initiate to continue selecting in the direction of the dragging.When in multiple select mode, and the expansion handle 1030 is notactivated, a user could simply scroll through the content as normal andsingle tap or hold the individual content items, or groups of items toadd or remove them from the selection. This is possible even whenscrolling away from a view of the currently selected content items,without losing those selections. Once the user has completed theirselection they can perform one of the actions in the sidebar 1044 orcancel the selection and return to the underlying user interface.

Realignment of Content

When a sidebar 444 or expanded sidebar 744 appears over the underlyinguser interface, it is possible that the sidebars might cover andtherefore obscure the view of the selected content item or items. FIG.12 illustrates how a proposed solution for ensuring that selectedcontent remains visible or at least partially visible even when asidebar appears.

State 1201 shows an image or photo viewing program with an arrangementof images laid out in a grid. The layout need not be a grid, it could bea linear list like with the example email application, or it could be anentirely unorganised combination of content items without any apparentstructure. A user chooses to select content item 1211 by placing theirfinger 1255 over the content item 1211 and holding down 1220 for acertain amount of time (300 ms in this example). Like in FIG. 4,performing a ‘long press’ on a content item selects it (as indicated bythe highlighted border 1215) and causes a transition to state 1202 wheresidebar 1244 is brought in 1230 to display a number of shortcut iconsassociated with the actions that can be performed on the content itemselected. Such actions may include starting a slideshow 1251, sharingthe content 1252, adding the content to the user's favourites 1253,rotating the image 1254 and tagging the image 1255.

Already, image 1213 is being obscured by the sidebar 1244 as it was onceclearly visible in state 1201. However, as the selected content item isstill clearly visible, there may not be a need to adjust the view of theunderlying user interface.

Once the user releases 1240 their finger, the sidebar 1244 may becomepinned, at which point the user may choose to expand the sidebar 1244 toget more information about the available actions. By performing a swipeto the left (not shown), the sidebar 1244 is expanded the larger sidebar1299 by a movement to the left 1270. In this expanded sidebar 1299,there is displayed a header 1290 providing information about the image,and each of the icons 1251 to 1255 have now expanded to larger icons1261 to 1265 to provide more information regarding their respectivefunctions.

Such an expansion of the sidebar 1244, however, would likely obscure theview of the selected content item 1211. Therefore, as shown in state1203, when the sidebar 1244 expands to the left 1270, the underlyinguser interface also expands to the left 1260, to ensure that theselected content item 1211 is at least partially visible.

There are a number of ways to minimise or reduce how much an expandedsidebar 1244 obscures selected content items. One, as shown above is, isto translate 1260 the entire underlying user interface in the samedirection as the sidebar expands (as illustrated by the relocation ofboth content items 1211 and 1212). Another way is to rearrange thecontent items such that the selected content item(s) are displayed inthe remaining space that is not obscured by the sidebar 1244. This wouldbe especially useful when multiple items are selected, as if contentitems 1211 and 1213 had been selected, no amount of simple translationswould have allowed other images 1211 and 1213 to be visible, but insteadrearranging the grid so that image 1213 is located under 1211 wouldallow them both to be displayed. A further way, could be to perform aresizing transform on some or all of the content items or GUI, whileeither maintaining the aspect ratios or not. The transparency of thesidebar can be altered to ensure that the underlying content is at leastpartially visible. Resizing the content items or GUI may result in noneof the underlying content to be obscured by expanded or non-expandedsidebar.

Once a sidebar has been expanded there will only be a finite amount ofspace left in the underlying application to display content withoutbeing obstructed by the sidebar 1244. This space, referred to as‘content area’, might have one or more dimensions smaller than the sizeof the content item or items selected, in which case the content itemmay be aligned in a specific way, such as to the side of the contentarea opposite to the sidebar, to ensure maximum visibility of thecontent item. If the content item is smaller than the content area, thenthe content item may be placed in a certain alignment, such as thecentre of this content area, to ensure it is displayed in the mostclearly visible region of the content area. Should the content item bysmaller than the content area, but be positioned close to the sidebar1244, it may be preferable for it to align with the side adjacent to thesidebar 1244 rather than with the centre of the content area to maximisevisibility, while still minimising the change in position of the contentitem. These solutions could also be applied for when non-expandedsidebars are likely to obscure content once they appear.

The above proposed solutions allow a full-functioned user interface tobe provided that minimises the amount of screen real estate used andaims to minimise how much the actual content is obscured by itspresence.

It is to be understood that the present disclosure includes allpermutations of combinations of the optional features set out in theembodiments described above. In particular, it is to be understood thatthe features set out in the appended dependent claims are disclosed incombination with any other relevant independent claims that may beprovided, and that this disclosure is not limited to only thecombination of the features of those dependent claims with theindependent claim from which they originally depend.

Embodiments have been described herein by way of example and theseembodiments are not intended to be limiting. Rather, it is contemplatedthat some embodiments may be subject to variation or modificationwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the describedembodiments.

Further exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will now be setout in the following numbered clauses.

Numbered clause 1. An electronic device for providing users of thedevice with access to content, comprising:

means for receiving user input;

a display;

one or more processors; and

memory comprising instructions which when executed by one or more of theprocessors cause the electronic device to:

display on the display, in juxtaposition with the graphical userinterface of an application, a sidebar representing a shortcut menu, thesidebar containing one or more icons representing operational shortcutsselectable by the user to cause respective operations to be performed inrelation to one or more selected content items;

and wherein the memory further comprises instructions to:

adjust the positioning of at least one of the one or more selectedcontent items so as to reduce the obscuration of the items by thesidebar.Numbered clause 2. An electronic device as claimed in clause 1, whereinthe memory further comprises instructions to, in response to receipt ofa user input indicating a sidebar expansion operation, cause the sidebarto be displayed in an extracted state having an increased width andcontaining enlarged operational shortcut icons in place of respectiveoperational shortcut icons.Numbered clause 3. An electronic device as claimed in clause 1, saidmemory comprising instructions which when executed by one or more of theprocessors cause the electronic device, in response to receipt of a userinput representing a non-modal shortcut menu-summoning operationperformed in relation to one or more selectable content itemsrepresented in a graphical user interface of an application displayed onthe display, to:

display on the display said sidebar; and

permit the user to continue to interact with at least part of thegraphical user interface of said application while the sidebar isdisplayed on the display.

Numbered clause 4. An electronic device as claimed in clause 1, saidmemory further comprising instructions which when executed by one ormore of the processors cause the electronic device, in response toreceipt of a user input representing a modal shortcut menu-summoningoperation performed in relation to one or more selectable content itemsrepresented in a graphical user interface of an application displayed onthe display, to:

display said sidebar on said display; and

cease displaying said sidebar in response to receipt of a user inputrepresenting a shortcut menu-dismissing operation, such that the user isthereafter able to continue to interact with the graphical userinterface of said application.

Numbered clause 5. An electronic device as claimed in clause 4, whereinsaid means for receiving user input comprises a touch-sensitive elementprovided in relation to said display to provide a touch-sensitivedisplay.Numbered clause 6. An electronic device as claimed in clause 5, whereinthe user input representing a modal shortcut menu-summoning operation isa static long press gesture on the content item for a period exceeding along press threshold time value.Numbered clause 7. An electronic device as claimed in clause 6, whereinthe long press threshold time value is varied dependent on monitoredfrequency of use of said gesture.Numbered clause 8. An electronic device as claimed in clause 6 or 7,wherein the memory further comprises instructions such that, if the userreleases the static long press gesture without beforehand dragging onthe touch-sensitive display, the sidebar is pinned to an edge of auseable area of the display such that it continues to be displayed afterthe static long press gesture is released.Numbered clause 9. An electronic device as claimed in clause 6, 7 or 8,wherein, where said user has not yet released said static long pressgesture, said user input representing a shortcut menu-dismissingoperation is a drag continuing from said static long press and asubsequent release of said drag on an area of the touch-sensitivedisplay off the sidebar.Numbered clause 10. An electronic device as claimed in any of clauses 6to 9, wherein, where said user has already released said static longpress gesture without beforehand dragging on the touch-sensitivedisplay, said user input representing a shortcut menu-dismissingoperation is a tap on an area of the touch-sensitive display off thesidebar.Numbered clause 11. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein said means for receiving user input comprises atouch-sensitive element provided in relation to said display to providea touch-sensitive display.Numbered clause 12. An electronic device as claimed in clause 11 whendependent on clause 3, wherein said user input representing a non-modalshortcut menu-summoning operation is one or more of:

a static short press gesture on a content item for a period exceeding ashort press threshold time value followed by a drag in the direction ofthe location of the shortcut menu; and

a static short press gesture item for a period exceeding a short pressthreshold time value on a content item followed by a concurrent touch onthe display where the shortcut menu will appear.

Numbered clause 13. An electronic device as claimed in clause 12, thememory further comprising instructions to cease displaying the sidebarif said touch continued from said static short press gesture isreleased.Numbered clause 14. An electronic device as claimed in clause 13,wherein said act of ceasing to display the sidebar is only carried outif no user input representing an interaction with said sidebar isreceived.Numbered clause 15. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, the memory further comprising instructions to cease displayingthe sidebar as a result of a user selecting an operational shortcut iconin the sidebar.Numbered clause 16. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause when dependent on clause 3, wherein said user input representinga non-modal shortcut menu-summoning operation performed in relation tothe one or more content items displayed in the graphical user interfaceof an application also causes a selection of said one or more contentitems.Numbered clause 17. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause when dependent on clause 4, wherein said user input representinga modal shortcut menu-summoning operation performed in relation to theone or more content items displayed in the graphical user interface ofan application also causes a selection of said one or more contentitems.Numbered clause 18. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein said means for receiving user input comprises atouch-sensitive element provided in relation to said display to providea touch-sensitive display, and wherein said device is a portableelectronic device.Numbered clause 19. An electronic device as claimed in clause 18,wherein the instructions further cause the device, when the graphicaluser interface of the application displays a list of content items andthe device receives user input in the form of a long press on a firstcontent item, to display in relation to the selected first content itema graphical user interface widget representing a selection handle, theselection handle widget being draggable by a user to select one or moreadditional content items adjacent the first content item in the list.Numbered clause 20. An electronic device as claimed in any clause 18 or19, wherein the instructions further cause the device, in response toreceiving user input indicative of a multiple-select operation, to allowa user to select/unselect plural content items presented in thegraphical user interface of the application by touching on said contentitems.Numbered clause 21. An electronic device as claimed in clause 20,wherein said user input indicative of a multiple-select operation is atouch on a multiple-select operation icon.Numbered clause 22. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein the instructions configure the device to attempt toperform the respective operations on the selected one or more contentitems indicated by each operational shortcut icon in response to receiptof user input representing an operational shortcut-activating operation.Numbered clause 23. An electronic device as claimed in clause 22,wherein said means for receiving user input comprises a touch-sensitiveelement provided in relation to said display to provide atouch-sensitive display, and wherein said user input representing anoperational shortcut-activating operation is a release of a touch onsaid icon.Numbered clause 24. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein the instructions further cause the device, in responseto receiving user input indicative of a delete operation in relation toa selected content item, to display a graphical user interface undodelete widget usable by a user of said device to undo a deletion of saidcontent item.Numbered clause 25. An electronic device as claimed in clause 24,wherein the undo delete widget continues to be displayed until theexpiry of a persistence time period which commences once the user startsto interact with the user interface of said application.Numbered clause 26. An electronic device as claimed in clause 24 or 25,wherein in response to receiving user input indicative of a deleteoperation in relation to a selected content item the representation ofthe selected content item in the user interface is altered to indicateits deletion.Numbered clause 27. An electronic device as claimed in clause 24, 25 or26, wherein, in response to receiving user input in relation to saidundo delete widget, said selected content item thereafter continues tobe represented in said graphical user interface and said content item isretained.Numbered clause 28. An electronic device as claimed in any of clauses 24to 27, wherein said means for receiving user input comprises atouch-sensitive element provided in relation to said display to providea touch-sensitive display, and wherein said user input indicative of adelete operation in relation to a selected content item comprises arelease of a touch on a delete shortcut icon provided on said sidebar.Numbered clause 29. An electronic device as claimed in clause 28,wherein, after receiving said user input indicative of a deleteoperation, said delete shortcut icon is animated to transform into saidundo delete widget.Numbered clause 30. An electronic device as claimed in any of clauses 24to 29, wherein said undo delete widget is anchored to said graphicaluser interface of said application.Numbered clause 31. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein an operational shortcut can be performed in relation toone or more selected content items by the user performing a drag fromsaid one or more selected content items onto said shortcut icon.Numbered clause 32. An electronic device as claimed in clause 31,wherein during said drag the graphical user interface of saidapplication scrolls and/or pans in accordance with said drag.Numbered clause 33. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein said means for receiving user input comprises atouch-sensitive element provided in relation to said display to providea touch-sensitive display, further comprising instructions that, inresponse to detection of a press on an operational shortcut icon, causethe device to display an enlarged operational shortcut icon projectingfrom the sidebar representing the respective operation in place of thepressed operational shortcut icon.Numbered clause 34. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein the sidebar is provided as an overlay on the userinterface of said application.Numbered clause 35. An electronic device as claimed in clause 34,wherein at least part of the sidebar is at least partially transparent.Numbered clause 36. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein the act of displaying the sidebar includes the sidebarbeing animated to appear on the display.Numbered clause 37. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein when the sidebar is displayed in an extracted state theappearance of the graphical user interface of the application isadjusted such that at least part of the or each content item is visiblein an area unobscured by the sidebar.Numbered clause 38. An electronic device as claimed in clause 37,wherein when the selected content items are larger than the remainingvisible area of the graphical user interface, the selected content isaligned to the side of the remaining visible area opposite the sidebar.Numbered clause 39. An electronic device as claimed in clause 37 or 38,wherein when the selected content items are smaller than the remainingvisible area of the graphical user interface, the selected content isaligned to the centre in the remaining visible area.Numbered clause 40. An electronic device as claimed in clause 37, 38 or39, wherein when the selected content items are aligned near an edge ofthe graphical user interface adjacent the sidebar, the alignment isretained.Numbered clause 41. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein said means for receiving user input comprises atouch-sensitive element provided in relation to said display to providea touch-sensitive display, and wherein the user input indicating asidebar expansion operation is a touch on a sidebar expansion iconand/or a swipe from the display directed away from the sidebar.Numbered clause 42. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein in said extracted state said sidebar is provided with aheader in which at least some metadata associated with the or eachcontent item is displayed.Numbered clause 43. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause when dependent on clause 3, wherein the user is permitted tocontinue to interact with the graphical user interface of saidapplication in such a way that user input performed in relation to thearea of the graphical user interface of said application visible withthe sidebar present has the same effect on the application as said inputwould have had before the sidebar was displayed.Numbered clause 44. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein the operational shortcut icons displayed in the sidebarare ordered in a prioritised list.Numbered clause 45. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein the sidebar contains only operational shortcut iconsthat represent operations capable of being performed by the device onthe type of content of the or each selected content item.Numbered clause 46. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein the sidebar contains operational shortcut icons thatrepresent all the operations capable of being performed by the device onthe or each type of content of the selected content item or items.Numbered clause 47. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein the selection of the operational shortcut icons to bedisplayed in the sidebar is dependent on the type or types of content ofthe selected content item or items.Numbered clause 48. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein the memory further comprises instructions such that,where a selected content item is associated with two or more types ofcontent, said sidebar is displayed at any one time in one of a number ofcontext types each corresponding to a respective one of said types ofcontent associated with said content item and in each of which thesidebar contains only operational shortcut icons that representoperations capable of being performed by the device on the respectivetype of content, wherein the displayed context type of the sidebar isconfigured to be changed in response to receipt of a user inputindicative of a sidebar context-change operation.Numbered clause 49. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, further comprising instructions to display in the sidebar one ormore fragments representing a portion of another application differentfrom the application currently in focus on the display.Numbered clause 50. An electronic device as claimed in clause 49,wherein said fragment is displayed responsive to the type of content ofsaid content item.Numbered clause 51. An electronic device as claimed in clause 50 or 51,wherein said fragment presents information obtained from said anotherapplication in said sidebar.Numbered clause 52. An electronic device as claimed in clause 49, 50 or51, wherein said fragment provides a user of said device with access tofunctionality provided by said another application by interacting withthe fragment without the user having to navigate away from said currentapplication.Numbered clause 53. An electronic device as claimed in any of clauses 49to 52, wherein said fragment is displayed only when said sidebar isdisplayed in an extracted state having an increased width and containingenlarged operational shortcut icons in place of respective operationalshortcut icons.Numbered clause 54. An electronic device as claimed in clause 53,wherein the sidebar provides a visual indication of the availability ofsaid fragment in said extended state of said sidebar.Numbered clause 55. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein said instructions that cause the device to display asidebar on the display are operable to display said sidebar for each ofone or more of plural applications in response to receiving said userinput performed in relation to one or more selectable content itemsrepresented in a graphical user interface of said application.Numbered clause 56. An electronic device as claimed in any precedingclause, wherein said sidebar is always displayed in the same location onthe display.Numbered clause 57. A computer-implemented method comprising, at anelectronic device for executing a plurality of applications forproviding users of the device with access to content and having atouch-sensitive display for receiving user input, said methodcomprising:

displaying on the display, in juxtaposition with the graphical userinterface of an application, a sidebar representing a shortcut menu, thesidebar containing one or more icons representing operational shortcutsselectable by the user to cause respective operations to be performed inrelation to one or more selected content items; and

further comprising, adjusting the positioning of at least one of the oneor more selected content items so as to reduce the obscuration of theitems by the sidebar.

Numbered clause 58. A method as claimed in clause 57 further comprising,in response to receipt of a user input indicating a sidebar expansionoperation, causing the sidebar to be displayed in an extracted statehaving an increased width and containing enlarged operational shortcuticons in place of respective operational shortcut icons.Numbered clause 59. A method as claimed in clause 57, furthercomprising, in response to receipt of a user input representing anon-modal shortcut menu-summoning operation performed in relation to oneor more selectable content items represented in a graphical userinterface of an application displayed on the display:

displaying on the display said sidebar; and

permitting the user to continue to interact with at least part of thegraphical user interface of said application while the sidebar isdisplayed on the display.

Numbered clause 60. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause57, 58 or 59, further comprising, in response to receipt of a user inputrepresenting a modal shortcut menu-summoning operation performed inrelation to one or more selectable content items represented in agraphical user interface of an application displayed on the display:

displaying said sidebar on said display; and

ceasing displaying said sidebar in response to receipt of a user inputrepresenting a shortcut menu-dismissing operation, such that the user isthereafter able to continue to interact with the graphical userinterface of said application.

Numbered clause 61. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause60, wherein said means for receiving user input comprises atouch-sensitive element provided in relation to said display to providea touch-sensitive display.Numbered clause 62. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause61, wherein the user input representing a modal shortcut menu-summoningoperation is a static long press gesture on the content item for aperiod exceeding a long press threshold time value.Numbered clause 63. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause62, wherein the long press threshold time value is varied dependent onmonitored frequency of use of said gesture.Numbered clause 64. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause62 or 63, further comprising, if the user releases the static long pressgesture without beforehand dragging on the touch-sensitive display,pinning the sidebar to an edge of a useable area of the display suchthat it continues to be displayed after the static long press gesture isreleased.Numbered clause 65. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause62, 63 or 63, wherein, where said user has not yet released said staticlong press gesture, said user input representing a shortcutmenu-dismissing operation is a drag continuing from said static longpress and a subsequent release of said drag on an area of thetouch-sensitive display off the sidebar.Numbered clause 66. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 62 to 65, wherein, where said user has already released saidstatic long press gesture without beforehand dragging on thetouch-sensitive display, said user input representing a shortcutmenu-dismissing operation is a tap on an area of the touch-sensitivedisplay off the sidebar.Numbered clause 67. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 66, wherein said means for receiving user input comprisesa touch-sensitive element provided in relation to said display toprovide a touch-sensitive display.Numbered clause 68. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause67 when dependent on clause 59, wherein said user input representing anon-modal shortcut menu-summoning operation is one or more of:

a static short press gesture on a content item for a period exceeding ashort press threshold time value followed by a drag in the direction ofthe location of the shortcut menu; and

a static short press gesture item for a period exceeding a short pressthreshold time value on a content item followed by a concurrent touch onthe display where the shortcut menu will appear.

Numbered clause 69. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause68, further comprising ceasing displaying the sidebar if said touchcontinued from said static short press gesture is released.Numbered clause 70. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause69, wherein said act of ceasing displaying the sidebar is only carriedout if no user input representing an interaction with said sidebar isreceived.Numbered clause 71. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 70, further comprising ceasing displaying the sidebar as aresult of a user selecting an operational shortcut icon in the sidebar.Numbered clause 72. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 71 when dependent on clause 59, wherein said user inputrepresenting a non-modal shortcut menu-summoning operation performed inrelation to the one or more content items displayed in the graphicaluser interface of an application also causes a selection of said one ormore content items.Numbered clause 73. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 72 when dependent on clause 60, wherein said user inputrepresenting a modal shortcut menu-summoning operation performed inrelation to the one or more content items displayed in the graphicaluser interface of an application also causes a selection of said one ormore content items.Numbered clause 74. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 73, wherein said means for receiving user input comprisesa touch-sensitive element provided in relation to said display toprovide a touch-sensitive display, and wherein said device is a portableelectronic device.Numbered clause 75. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause74, further comprising, when the graphical user interface of theapplication displays a list of content items and the device receivesuser input in the form of a long press on a first content item,displaying in relation to the selected first content item a graphicaluser interface widget representing a selection handle, the selectionhandle widget being draggable by a user to select one or more additionalcontent items adjacent the first content item in the list.Numbered clause 76. A computer-implemented method as claimed in anyclause 74 or 75, further comprising, in response to receiving user inputindicative of a multiple-select operation, allowing a user toselect/unselect plural content items presented in the graphical userinterface of the application by touching on said content items.Numbered clause 77. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause76, wherein said user input indicative of a multiple-select operation isa touch on a multiple-select operation icon.Numbered clause 78. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 77, further comprising attempting to perform therespective operations on the selected one or more content itemsindicated by each operational shortcut icon in response to receipt ofuser input representing an operational shortcut-activating operation.Numbered clause 79. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause78, wherein said means for receiving user input comprises atouch-sensitive element provided in relation to said display to providea touch-sensitive display, and wherein said user input representing anoperational shortcut-activating operation is a release of a touch onsaid icon.Numbered clause 80. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 78, further comprising, in response to receiving userinput indicative of a delete operation in relation to a selected contentitem, displaying a graphical user interface undo delete widget usable bya user of said device to undo a deletion of said content item.Numbered clause 81. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause80, wherein the undo delete widget continues to be displayed until theexpiry of a persistence time period which commences once the user startsto interact with the user interface of said application.Numbered clause 82. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause80 or 81, wherein in response to receiving user input indicative of adelete operation in relation to a selected content item therepresentation of the selected content item in the user interface isaltered to indicate its deletion.Numbered clause 83. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause80, 81 or 82, wherein, in response to receiving user input in relationto said undo delete widget, said selected content item thereaftercontinues to be represented in said graphical user interface and saidcontent item is retained.Numbered clause 84. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 80 to 82, wherein said means for receiving user input comprisesa touch-sensitive element provided in relation to said display toprovide a touch-sensitive display, and wherein said user inputindicative of a delete operation in relation to a selected content itemcomprises a release of a touch on a delete shortcut icon provided onsaid sidebar.Numbered clause 85. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause84, wherein, after receiving said user input indicative of a deleteoperation, said delete shortcut icon is animated to transform into saidundo delete widget.Numbered clause 86. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 80 to 85, wherein said undo delete widget is anchored to saidgraphical user interface of said application.Numbered clause 87. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 86, wherein an operational shortcut can be performed inrelation to one or more selected content items by the user performing adrag from said one or more selected content items onto said shortcuticon.Numbered clause 88. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause87, wherein during said drag the graphical user interface of saidapplication scrolls and/or pans in accordance with said drag.Numbered clause 89. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 88, wherein said means for receiving user input comprisesa touch-sensitive element provided in relation to said display toprovide a touch-sensitive display, the method further comprising, inresponse to detection of a press on an operational shortcut icon,causing the device to display an enlarged operational shortcut iconprojecting from the sidebar representing the respective operation inplace of the pressed operational shortcut icon.Numbered clause 90. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 89, wherein the sidebar is provided as an overlay on theuser interface of said application.Numbered clause 91. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause90, wherein at least part of the sidebar is at least partiallytransparent.Numbered clause 92. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 91, wherein the act of displaying the sidebar includes thesidebar being animated to appear on the display.Numbered clause 93. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 92, wherein when the sidebar is displayed in an extractedstate the appearance of the graphical user interface of the applicationis adjusted such that at least part of the or each content item isvisible in an area unobscured by the sidebar.Numbered clause 94. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause93, wherein when the selected content items are larger than theremaining visible area of the graphical user interface, the selectedcontent is aligned to the side of the remaining visible area oppositethe sidebar.Numbered clause 95. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause93 or 94, wherein when the selected content items are smaller than theremaining visible area of the graphical user interface, the selectedcontent is aligned to the centre in the remaining visible area.Numbered clause 96. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause93, 94 or 95, wherein when the selected content items are aligned nearan edge of the graphical user interface adjacent the sidebar, thealignment is retained.Numbered clause 97. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 96, wherein said means for receiving user input comprisesa touch-sensitive element provided in relation to said display toprovide a touch-sensitive display, and wherein the user input indicatinga sidebar expansion operation is a touch on a sidebar expansion iconand/or a swipe from the display directed away from the sidebar.Numbered clause 98. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 97, wherein in said extracted state said sidebar isprovided with a header in which at least some metadata associated withthe or each content item is displayed.Numbered clause 99. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 98 when dependent on clause 59, wherein the user ispermitted to continue to interact with the graphical user interface ofsaid application in such a way that user input performed in relation tothe area of the graphical user interface of said application visiblewith the sidebar present has the same effect on the application as saidinput would have had before the sidebar was displayed.Numbered clause 100. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 99, wherein the operational shortcut icons displayed inthe sidebar are ordered in a prioritised list.Numbered clause 101. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 100, wherein the sidebar contains only operationalshortcut icons that represent operations capable of being performed bythe device on the type of content of the or each selected content item.Numbered clause 102. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 101, wherein the sidebar contains operational shortcuticons that represent all the operations capable of being performed bythe device on the or each type of content of the selected content itemor items.Numbered clause 103. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 101, wherein the selection of the operational shortcuticons to be displayed in the sidebar is dependent on the type or typesof content of the selected content item or items.Numbered clause 104. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 103, further comprising, where a selected content item isassociated with two or more types of content, displaying said sidebar atany one time in one of a number of context types each corresponding to arespective one of said types of content associated with said contentitem and in each of which the sidebar contains only operational shortcuticons that represent operations capable of being performed by the deviceon the respective type of content, wherein the displayed context type ofthe sidebar is configured to be changed in response to receipt of a userinput indicative of a sidebar context-change operation.Numbered clause 105. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 104, further comprising displaying in the sidebar one ormore fragments representing a portion of another application differentfrom the application currently in focus on the display.Numbered clause 106. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause105, wherein said fragment is displayed responsive to the type ofcontent of said content item.Numbered clause 107. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause105 or 106, wherein said fragment presents information obtained fromsaid another application in said sidebar.Numbered clause 108. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause105, 106 or 107, wherein said fragment provides a user of said devicewith access to functionality provided by said another application byinteracting with the fragment without the user having to navigate awayfrom said current application.Numbered clause 109. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 105 to 107, wherein said fragment is displayed only when saidsidebar is displayed in an extracted state having an increased width andcontaining enlarged operational shortcut icons in place of respectiveoperational shortcut icons.Numbered clause 110. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause109, wherein the sidebar provides a visual indication of theavailability of said fragment in said extended state of said sidebar.Numbered clause 111. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 110, further comprising operating said device to displaysaid sidebar in relation to each of one or more of plural applicationsin response to receiving said user input performed in relation to one ormore selectable content items represented in a graphical user interfaceof said application.Numbered clause 112. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 111, wherein said sidebar is always displayed in the samelocation on the display.Numbered clause 113. A computer-implemented method as claimed in any ofclauses 57 to 112, wherein as a result of a user selecting anoperational shortcut icon in the sidebar, the sidebar provides a visualindication that said operational shortcut icon has been selected.Numbered clause 114. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause113, wherein after said selection of said operational shortcut icon inthe sidebar, all the components of the sidebar are dismissed, saiddismissal being animated.Numbered clause 115. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause114, wherein the animated dismissal of said selected operationalshortcut icon is different from the animated dismissal of the othercomponents of the sidebar.Numbered clause 116. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause115, wherein said difference in animated dismissal of said selectedoperational shortcut and said other components of the sidebar is a delayin commencement of said animation.Numbered clause 117. A computer-implemented method as claimed in clause115, wherein said difference in animated dismissal of said selectedoperational shortcut and said other components of the sidebar is adifference in speed of said animation.Numbered clause 118. A computer readable medium comprising instructionswhich when executed by one or more of the processors of An electronicdevice having a touch-sensitive display for receiving user input causethe portable electronic device to operate in accordance with the methodas claimed in any of clauses 57 to 117.Numbered clause 119. An electronic device as claimed in any of clauses 1to 56, wherein as a result of a user selecting an operational shortcuticon in the sidebar, the sidebar provides a visual indication that saidoperational shortcut icon has been selected.Numbered clause 120. An electronic device as claimed in clause 119,wherein after said selection of said operational shortcut icon in thesidebar, all the components of the sidebar are dismissed, said dismissalbeing animated.Numbered clause 121. An electronic device as claimed in clause 120,wherein the animated dismissal of said selected operational shortcuticon is different from the animated dismissal of the other components ofthe sidebar.Numbered clause 122. An electronic device as claimed in clause 121,wherein said difference in animated dismissal of said selectedoperational shortcut and said other components of the sidebar is a delayin commencement of said animation.Numbered clause 123. An electronic device as claimed in clause 121,wherein said difference in animated dismissal of said selectedoperational shortcut and said other components of the sidebar is adifference in speed of said animation.Numbered clause 124. An electronic device comprising:

means for receiving user input;

a display;

one or more processors; and

memory comprising instructions which when executed by one or more of theprocessors cause the electronic device to:

display on the display a menu adjacent an edge of the display, whilemaintaining at least a portion of a graphical user interface on thedisplay, the menu containing one or more icons, each icon representing amenu function selectable by a user;

and wherein the memory further comprises instructions to:

alter the size of the graphical user interface on the display to reducethe obscuration of the graphical user interface by the menu.

Numbered clause 125. An electronic device as claimed in clause 124,wherein the memory further comprises instructions to alter the size ofthe graphical user interface on the display so that the graphical userinterface is not obscured at all by the menu.Numbered clause 126. An electronic device as claimed in clause 124 or125, wherein it alters the layout of the graphical user interface whenthe menu is in an extracted state.Numbered clause 127. An electronic device according to any of clauses124 to 126, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a number ofitems and the alteration of the size of the graphical user interfacecomprises altering the layout of the items on the graphical userinterface.Numbered clause 128. An electronic device according to clause 127 whendependent on clause 125 or clause 126, wherein the graphical userinterface is altered so that none of the items are obscured by the menu.Numbered clause 129. An electronic device as claimed in clause 127 orclause 128, wherein when the items are larger than the remaining visiblearea of the graphical user interface, the items are aligned to the sideof the remaining visible area opposite the menu.Numbered clause 130. An electronic device as claimed in any of clauses127 to 128, wherein when the items are smaller than the remainingvisible area of the graphical user interface, the items are aligned tothe centre in the remaining visible area.Numbered clause 131. An electronic device as claimed in any of clauses124 to 130, wherein when the items are aligned near an edge of thegraphical user interface adjacent the menu, the alignment is retained.

1. A computer-implemented method at an electronic device having adisplay and means for receiving user input, said method comprising:displaying on the display a graphical user interface comprising aplurality of selectable items and while maintaining at least a portionof the graphical user interface on the display, a menu containing one ormore functions selectable by the user; and further comprising,re-arranging the relative positioning of at least two of the pluralityof selectable items on the display so as to reduce the obscuration of atleast one of the plurality of selectable items by the menu. 2.(canceled)
 3. (canceled)
 4. A method as claimed in claim 1, furthercomprising at least one of resizing and shifting the graphical userinterface.
 5. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the re-arrangingthe relative positioning results in no obscuration of the graphical userinterface by the menu.
 6. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein whenthe menu is displayed in an enlarged state the appearance of thegraphical user interface of the application is altered such that atleast part of the or each selected item is visible in an area unobscuredby the menu.
 7. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein when a selecteditem is larger than the remaining visible area of the graphical userinterface, the selected item is aligned to the side of the remainingvisible area opposite the menu.
 8. A method as claimed in claim 1,wherein when a selected item is smaller than the remaining visible areaof the graphical user interface, the selected items are aligned to thecentre in the remaining visible area.
 9. A method as claimed in claim 1,wherein when a selected item is aligned near an edge of the graphicaluser interface adjacent the menu and is smaller than the remainingvisible area of the graphical user interface, the alignment is retained.10. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising altering the sizeof the graphical user interface on the display to reduce the obscurationof the graphical user interface by the menu.
 11. A method as claimed inclaim 1, further comprising resizing the graphical user interface on thedisplay so that the graphical user interface is not obscured at all bythe menu.
 12. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprisingaltering the graphical user interface when the menu is in an enlargedstate.
 13. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising alteringthe graphical user interface so that no selected items are obscured bythe menu.
 14. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising, inresponse to receipt of a user input indicating a menu expansionoperation, causing the menu to be displayed in an enlarged state havingan increased width.
 15. A method as claimed in claim 14, wherein whenthe menu is displayed in said enlarged state, a description of the eachfunction is displayed.
 16. An electronic device comprising: means forreceiving user input; a display; one or more processors; and memorycomprising instructions which when executed by one or more of theprocessors cause the electronic device to: display on the display agraphical user interface comprising a plurality of selectable items andwhile maintaining at least a portion of the graphical user interface onthe display, a menu containing one or more functions selectable by theuser; and re-arranging the relative positioning at least two of theplurality of selectable items on the display so as to reduce theobscuration of at least one of the plurality of selectable items by themenu.
 17. (canceled)
 18. (canceled)
 19. An electronic device as claimedin claim 16, further comprising at least one of resizing and shiftingthe graphical user interface.
 20. An electronic device as claimed inclaim 16, wherein re-arranging the relative positioning results in noobscuration of the graphical user interface by the menu.
 21. Anelectronic device as claimed in claim 16, wherein when the menu isdisplayed in an enlarged state the appearance of the graphical userinterface of the application is altered such that at least part of theor each selected item is visible in an area unobscured by the menu. 22.An electronic device as claimed in claim 16, wherein when a selecteditem is larger than the remaining visible area of the graphical userinterface, the selected item is aligned to the side of the remainingvisible area opposite the menu.
 23. An electronic device as claimed inclaim 16, wherein when a selected item is smaller than the remainingvisible area of the graphical user interface, the selected items arealigned to the centre in the remaining visible area.
 24. An electronicdevice as claimed in claim 16, wherein when a selected item is alignednear an edge of the graphical user interface adjacent the menu and issmaller than the remaining visible area of the graphical user interface,the alignment is retained.
 25. An electronic device as claimed in claim16, further comprising altering the size of the graphical user interfaceon the display to reduce the obscuration of the graphical user interfaceby the menu.
 26. An electronic device as claimed in claim 16, whereinthe memory comprises further instructions to resize the graphical userinterface on the display so that the graphical user interface is notobscured at all by the menu.
 27. An electronic device as claimed inclaim 16, wherein the memory comprises further instructions to alter thegraphical user interface when the menu is in an enlarged state.
 28. Anelectronic device as claimed in claim 16, wherein the memory comprisesfurther instructions to alter the graphical user interface so that noselected items are obscured by the menu.
 29. An electronic device asclaimed in claim 16, wherein the memory comprises further instructionsto, in response to receipt of a user input indicating a menu expansionoperation, cause the menu to be displayed in an enlarged state having anincreased width.
 30. A non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprising instructions which when executed by one or more of theprocessors of an electronic device having a display and means forreceiving user input cause the portable electronic device to: display onthe display a graphical user interface comprising a plurality ofselectable items and while maintaining at least a portion of thegraphical user interface on the display, a menu containing one or morefunctions selectable by the user; and re-arranging the relativepositioning at least two of the plurality of selectable items on thedisplay so as to reduce the obscuration of at least one of the pluralityof selectable items by the menu.